Have you ever wondered what it would be like to engage in a mobile ecosystem
outside of the watchful eye of the Big Tech giants and gatekeepers? A system
that includes everything from operating systems, to app stores, to cloud
services, messaging apps, email servers and more? A system that puts your
privacy first, believes in a democratic approach and healthy competition,
and a system that relies on open-source solutions to drive its software?
Welcome to Mobifree, a human-centered, ethical
alternative, that champions privacy over profit and believes in
collaboration, sustainability and inclusiveness.

Everyone is locked into a mobile phone ecosystem where the terms are
dictated by a handful of Big Tech companies all located in a single
country. From end users looking to download and use their favorite apps, to
developers who run into roadblocks when trying to get their solutions
published, to governments who are increasingly using apps as a way to
provide services to their citizens, we are all impacted by the gatekeeping,
data tracking, and railroading Big Tech is imposing on us in the current
mobile ecosystem. A new alternative is required to shape a better
future. And F-Droid is excited to be a part of creating that new mobile
ecosystem, together with our other partners in Mobifree.

For an average user, it is difficult to discern how you are being tracked,
where your private information is being saved, how it is being used and who
it is being sold to. As a long-standing champion of user and developer
rights, pushing for privacy over profit, F-Droid has always been committed
to upholding high open-source standards in the technology we create. For
more than 14 years, F-Droid has been developing solutions which act as
pieces of the alternative mobile ecosystem puzzle. So it was a natural fit
for F-Droid to become a contributing partner in the broader Mobifree
project.

Of particular emphasis is the impact this alternative mobile ecosystem will
have on the services governments provide their citizens. Governments at all
levels are providing services through mobile apps. And in many cases, mobile
apps are becoming the preferred way to access important services. These apps
are only available via the Apple App Store or Google Play. And installing
apps from those stores requires agreeing to their Terms of Services. Both
app stores were built on tracking users to sell their data, thereby giving
Apple and Google power over how citizens receive services from their own
governments. Even the governments themselves are beholden to the Big Tech
gatekeepers: citizens and government officials and employees must use apps
that are only published on Apple and Google.

Austria provides a few specific examples of how governments interact with
the current ecosystem at multiple levels. After COVID-19 countermeasures
forced schools to adopt online learning, many public schools required
education apps for their students, parents and teachers in order to stay
connected. Public health insurance providers require a specific app called
“Handy Signatur” to be downloaded in order for citizens to access their
accounts online. People with the Handy Signatur app can sign petitions, and
download vaccination certificates, sometimes required for work or leisure
activities. Without this app, it is much more work and effort and is
borderline impossible in some cases to engage in certain activities.

Governments around the world are taking action to reign in the dominance of
Big Tech. South Africa and the
UK
have changed their competition policy to include user freedom in what they
regulate.
Japan is working on new laws to open
up
their mobile markets. And even the US government and many individual US
states have sued Big
Tech
to stop monopolistic behaviors.

The EU is also taking a step towards creating distance between its citizens
and Big Tech gatekeepers. They passed a landmark law: the Digital Markets
Act, representing a
whole new approach to tackling gatekeeper companies that aim to keep all
sorts of competition out. It builds upon the successes of the EU’s General
Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), taking an important step in a more
ethical, democratic and citizens-first direction. All of these efforts are
helping to open up possibilities for mobile users. And thanks to the
Mobifree partnership, funded by an EU Horizon Europe grant, F-Droid can
share open-source, privacy-driven solutions with a larger audience.

In fact Europe is already seeing significant changes as a result of the
Digital Markets Act (DMA). Google has shut out other app stores by ensuring
that they have a third-class user experience. The DMA means that Google is
now legally forbidden from giving preference to their own app store over
alternatives like F-Droid. Additionally, Apple has opened up to external
app stores for the first time ever. And while these are great first steps
in the right direction, regulations and litigation do not build
software. With this in mind, Mobifree is poised to take action on the new
opportunities in the market, to build an unprecedented mobile experience for
users and developers. One that centers around ethical practices, digital
sovereignty, fairness, sustainability and inclusiveness.

F-Droid will play a major role in this project, tasked with creating a
decentralized distribution system for developers to deliver apps to Android
users. The impact will be an opening of the app market for Android,
improving honest competition around app development. And a foundational
guiding principle is to provide privacy controls to users, without locking
anyone out from participating. The app distribution system will focus on a
3-party interaction between app developers, app stores and app users where
every party will have freedom of choice at all points of interaction. The
system will have no terms of service or even user accounts to sign up
for. Developers can publish their own apps, via their own repositories. Any
app store can use those repositories to provide users with a method to
install those apps. And if the app is open source, it can be included in the
main F-Droid.org repository, where it will be reviewed using F-Droid’s
proven ethical review process. Users will be given true choice in terms of
their apps and app store preferences, additional privacy guardrails and
increased transparency into what is happening with their data.

F-Droid is one participating organization who has joined forces to help
create this new mobile ecosystem. However, additional input, expertise,
inspiration and work will be needed in order to break the traditional
framework established by Big Tech. From community outreach to legal support,
from developers, to researchers and end users, we welcome all forms of
support. If you are a curious citizen interested in taking part in the
Mobifree movement, we encourage you to reach out to us at f-droid.org and
see how you can take part in this exciting mobile alternative.

(We will be tracking work under this
grant using the
Mobifree
label.)