Enough that they can tell with a decent amount of certainty whose social credit score should be lowered, once that gets inevitably introduced /s
(I don’t think that conspiratorially… It’s probably just data harvesting and extreme greed.)
The issue in this case is that they apparently use text to speech locally, store that information on the device itself, and then if at any point in the future gets connected to the internet for any meaningful length of time (be it by a subsequent owner) it will then be sent on to LG… for safekeeping of course /s
The deep-dive by GamersNexus is pretty in depth.
I’ll bite… Why would that be my goal?
e-ID isn’t mandatory (it’s not even available in every country), but the form should be filled in with correct personal information.
They will need to verify whether the people who filled in the form are actual people who are eligible to sign the citizens’ initiative.
Using e-ID just makes the whole verification easier for everyone.
Given that this is part of the legislative process, and there is legal requirements for European Parliament to adhere to if the Citizen’s Initiative meets the threshold, I would argue that signing the petition has a similar weight to casting a ballot in an election.
Just like how you need to verify in an election that someone is legally allowed to vote in that election, this petition needs to verify whether someone is legally allowed to sign the petition.
If there was no verification of identity, hypothetically someone could fill the platform with junk petitions, which could all be signed by a bunch of Russian bots. It would completely undermine the democratic process.
So yes, I do believe identity verification is “strictly necessary” in this case
As the Citizen’s Initiative says:
Citizens must not be forced to identify themselves to access lawful online content or services unless strictly necessary, proportionate and provided by law.
I would argue in this case e-ID verification (or other verification of identity) is necessary and proportionate.
That’s just how these Citizen’s Initiatives work.
Since there are requirements for the European Parliament to address the concerns, they need a way to verify that the signatures are actually real and match to EU citizens.
They need some way to prevent spam which would make this democratic tool meaningless.
Thanks for the headsup. Signed it and passed it on to a few friends who also care about this stuff.
I’m not inherently against the EU providing a means to verify age and/or identity online, but the legal framework proposed by this Citizen’s Initiative seems entirely reasonable, and even preferable, to me.
Edit: I do find it a bit funny that I signed a petition about online ID checks using my country’s e-ID.
If you hover over it, it gives you the answer.
It hides posts which have been previously hidden. Conversely the other button shows these posts.
Is this loss?
My most-used chat app is Discord, and that one has custom emojis.
These are my most frequently used “emojis” there:
I think the main problem is that they get stripped from their context? So it becomes unclear whether an emoji is used in earnest or whether it is used sarcastically or ironically.
The custom emojis do add a bit of a personal touch though
The Dutch gold reserve is nothing to sneeze at. It’s a fifth the size of Germany’s gold reserve, and a quarter the size of Italy’s
Source: https://statbase.org/datasets/finance/gold-reserves/
Germany has about 37% of its gold in the US, for the NL this was previously 31.3% (and now 18.5%)
So the amount of Gold that was moved by the NL is still significant.
Edit: Accidentally said quarter the size of Germany and a third the size of Italy. This is incorrect.
I’ve read the news in Dutch papers, referencing the Dutch Central Bank directly.
Having skimmed through the AP article, it doesn’t really seem to provide any real additional information.
I guess 41% of Dutch gold stored in the US is technically a fraction
The “crisis preparedness” argument boiled down that in case of crisis they needed to be able to sell the gold quickly. And that that would be easier in London than it would be in New York or Ottowa.
I do not believe that this is the real reason.
There has been concern about the US “confiscating” (read: stealing) our gold reserves ever since Trump got re-elected. The Dutch Central Bank also has regularly voiced concerns about the reliability of the US, and our over reliance on American financial services and payment services.
I think the real reason is that they want to secure the gold from Trump’s grubby little hands.
And the “official reason” is meant to obfuscate the actual reason, and buy plausible deniability.
According to the NOS the vast majority of gold that was moved was from the US, not Canada.
The share of Dutch gold stored in New York has gone down from 31.3% to 18.5%.
Edit: Added translations to the graph
Not sure if you can buy unlocked phones from 3rd parties where you live, but over here in the NL I can get a green one for €511,-
(They used to be under €500 for all models, but the RAM shortage makes a fool of us all)
Buying the /e/OS version from Fairphone directly is €649. So the difference is still €138, which I wouldn’t say is insignificant.
If you specifically want /e/OS, you need to watch out where you buy the Fairphone.
There is two versions, with the regular Android (with Google services) version being the more common one.
https://www.fairphone.com/nl/the-fairphone-gen-6-e-operating-system
If you buy this one from their website you are guaranteed to get the /e/OS version
Edit: Also worth noting that you could also unlock the bootloader, and install /e/OS on the regular Android version as well. You might be able to save € 150-200 that way.
To my knowledge you can relock the bootloader after you are done? You’d have to look into that yourself though.
You don’t need to get a non-Android phone in order to get a non-Google phone.
Android is open source, and if you are willing to forgo the Google Play Store and Google Play Services there are non-Google options. GrapheneOS and /e/OS are de-Googled versions of Android, for example.
Fairphone comes with an option with /e/OS installed by default, if you don’t want to bother installing it yourself.
It’s still showing as Lake Ontario on Google Maps in the Netherlands
The Gulf of Mexico is also still called the Gulf of Mexico, but they put Gulf of America in parenthesis
By all means de-Google though. Cut all the American tech companies out of your life as much as feasibly possible.
You’ve got to be able to laugh at yourself every now and then