Mobifree

Over the past two decades, Big Tech companies including Apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook have shaped the mobile software ecosystem. This has resulted in a closed ecosystem fuelled by extractive business models that abuse user data and have rolled out oppressive technical standards, requiring both developers and consumers to obey the terms set by these monopolists. The power of large US tech companies in the mobile software market not only undermines Europe's competitive position, but also clashes with core European values such as transparency, respect for (digital) human rights and good working conditions for employees.

The Freedom in Human-centred and Ethical Mobile Software (MOBIFREE) project had the ambition to offer European citizens and organisations more choice and access to ethical mobile software that puts citizens' values at the centre. Mobifree focused on bringing about change in the development and use of mobile software in Europe by citizens, businesses, non-profit organisations and governments. In doing so, the project supported the emerging movement for ethical mobile software consisting of organisations that comply with European values such as: openness, privacy, digital sovereignty, fairness, collaboration, sustainability and inclusiveness.

Within the Mobifree project, Waag developed the conditions for a Human-centred and Ethical framework in collaboration with software developers, consumers, policymakers and other stakeholders. This framework supports the development of an open, fair and sustainable mobile ecosystem.

Results of Mobifree

Throughout the project, Waag worked with end users, developers and policymakers to explore how ethical mobile software can better reflect the values and needs of users. The insights from the research have been incorporated into two publications:

Guide for co-creation of ethical software: a practical guide that helps developers incorporate the values and needs of end users into the development process from the very beginning.

Building a public mobile stack: a position paper with a framework that connects user values, design choices within the mobile stack and European law. The publication also includes recommendations for developers and policymakers.

This project has been made possible by funding from the European Commission's Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative. The project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation program under Grant Agreement number 101069813.