Your operating system and you: why you should care
There is a lot of valuable technology built into your phone, such as ultra slim processors, sensors, camera lenses and microphones. But what's running in the background of your phone?
Your operating system (OS) controls how apps communicate with your hardware. However, companies like Apple and Google use their OS to hide background activity such as data collection, and they heavily restrict what you can do with your phone.
70% of all phones operate on Google’s Android OS in and over 28% of phones operate on Apple’s iOS.
In a society that claims freedom of choice is an important value, it is strange that this does not apply to the operating system of the device you use the most. Over the past two decades, Apple and, Google, have gained a lot of control over your smartphone through their operating systems and terms of service.
Your operating system favors apps made by these companies or their partners, and limits what other apps can do. For example, banking apps only work on Android and iOS. It also gathers a lot of sensitive data about you in the background, such as where you work and what kind of health care facilities you visit. This closed ecosystem limits our freedom of choice and poses risks for our data. Moreover, operating systems have many apps pre-installed on the system level, and it has been made virtually impossible to delete them.
Without an OS, your phone wouldn’t work - which creates an unfair dependence. For most phones, there simply is no choice: you have to deal with the hegemonymonopoly of Android and iOS. There is no way to opt-out.
Let's fix it!
Murena
Good news! Some mobile phones have open source operating systems that are more privacy friendly. For instance, there is Murena, which offers more privacy by removing system level trackers. These alternative operating systems develop solutions to make your apps less dependent on connections to Google.
Mobifree
With the project Mobifree, Waag Futurelab is developing the conditions for a human-centred and ethical framework in collaboration with software developers, legal scholars, and end-users. This framework will support the development of an open, fair and sustainable mobile ecosystem.
Are you passionate about opening up the mobile ecosystem? We are looking for people to help test the prototype.
Do you belong to one of the following groups?
- Young adults (18 - 26 years)
- Civil servants
- (Open source) mobile software developers
- Professionals working at a humanitarian organisation
Then we are looking for you!
This publication is a part of the Fix Your Phone Shop, which was presented at the Dutch Design Week 2024. You can download the Operating System book here (pdf).
