It’s been a few weeks now since the release of iOS 17.4, which

[…] provides new options for app marketplaces, web browsers and payments for residents of the European Union. […]

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am a firm believer in the underlying regulation to it, and have been ever since the possibility of this becoming a reality was in the Brussels air. But so far, I haven’t really been able to come up with a truly practical use case.

Furthermore, I haven’t seen any marketing for an Epic Store, Meta Store, or similar “app marketplaces”, but this may be attributed to the still rather… wobbly legal situation surrounding, notably, still having to direct payments to Apple while not using their store for app distribution. I don’t think there has been any follow-up from Apple (or the EU) that retracts these conditions.

So: Have any fellow EU resident ~tech’ies done anything fun or interesting with this new freedom yet?

To those not affected by this regulation, what would you like to “sideload”, or are perhaps already sideloading on Android?

Do any of you think big companies will move their entire palette onto an alternative store anytime soon, e.g. Facebook and sister products? To be honest, I doubt this will happen, otherwise it would’ve long occurred on the Google Play Store as well.

My ideas were:

• I’ve thought about trying to install Minecraft (the full version, probably using Pojav), or a game of similar caliber, on my phone just for fun and to see how well the iPhone GPU really fares against a “real” game, but didn’t find the time yet for looking into it.
• Also personally, I’d love to see a real “root-capable” shell on iOS, but I don’t think that will ever be a thing irrespective of how much sideloading Apple is forced to allow into their OS.

I am in the EU.

I asked a company in which I had an account to delete my account. They told me they would do that as long as I sent them an ID and a postal address. This is to ensure that "I am the right person".

I never gave them an ID and a postal address in the first place so how would that verify anything, and I'm using the email that I used to sign-up with them to ask for the deletion.

Am I in the wrong to believe that this should be easier? Are they misinterpreting the GDPR or am I?

What are my options if I do not want to send my ID and postal address?

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Their arguments are:

Article 5(1)(f) of the GDPR requires us to meet security obligations in data processing. Since data deletion is permanent, we need to ensure that the request is indeed from the person concerned.

Furthermore, Article 12(6) of the GDPR states: "…when the data controller has reasonable doubts concerning the identity of the natural person making the request referred to in Articles 15 to 21, he may request the provision of additional information necessary to confirm the identity of the data subject."