Samsung has decided to proceed with the Bootloader blocking also in Europe, a move that has caused a lot of discussion. Behind this choice is a European regulation that will come into force in August 2025 and which risks changing smartphone usage in Europe forever. This is why other manufacturers may soon follow suit.
From 1 August 2025, new provisions will come into force RED Directive (Radio Equipment Directive), which redefines the compliance requirements for all radio devices sold in Europe. This is a significant change, not so much for the amount of regulations introduced, but for the effect they will have on the entire Android ecosystem. The issue revolves around three articles that impose specific protections: against network interference, personal data compromise, and digital fraud. These are, in themselves, sacrosanct rules.
But the crux comes with the interpretation prevailingEach device must ensure full compliance not only with the hardware, but also with the software that controls the radio modules. This is where the bootloader comes in. Unlocking it essentially allows you to replace the original operating system with an alternative one, such as LineageOS or GrapheneOS.
But these systems, if they modify the radio drivers even minimally, invalidate the CE certification. An uncertified device can no longer be legally marketed or used, at least according to the most stringent reading of the law.
This scenario has therefore led Samsung to protect its devices. Not on a whim, but to avoid any software modifications falling under your legal liability. If a user installs a ROM that interferes with radio frequencies or compromises communications security, the manufacturer (and in some cases the importer) may be held directly liable.
RED does not explicitly talk about unlocking the Bootloader or custom ROM, but it opens one regulatory space in which the margins for maneuver are they narrow. And in doing so, it provides a solid argument for those who have been trying for years to close the loop between hardware, software, and services. After all, customizing the operating system also means breaking away from proprietary services and, therefore, from the model that ties the user to the brand.
Samsung is just the first to move, but it’s hard to imagine it will be the only one. Starting in August 2025, it’s very likely that other manufacturers will follow suit, at least for the European market.
The whole smart phone thing is such a lesson in letting go of the rope.
Once you let corporations get away with a little, they will eventually take everything.
Every time we lost a bit of control me and a few of enthusiasts were screaming, but the regular populace just shrugged…
Even on reddit you’d have to argue with idiots “oh just use Bluetooth headphones! Oh who needs sd cards, just use the cloud! Oh who needs rooting, it’s not needed”
I swear to god if Windows / OS were invented today 80 of people would just shrug as all control of their PC was taken away.
I agree with essentially everything you’re saying but can’t wrap my head around the last sentence. Would you mind elaborating so I can add more fuel to my rage?
I think they mean that if the standard OS was Linux instead of Windows, and therefore everybody had full control of their computers, that if windows was suddenly released and installed on all pc’s instead of Linux, people would still shrug and be fine with it.
Even on reddit you’d have to argue with idiots “oh just use Bluetooth headphones! Oh who needs sd cards, just use the cloud! Oh who needs rooting, it’s not needed”
Also, for any of said idiots who may be reading this. If you see someone bitching about functionality being removed that you yourself don’t need, the correct response is to just not respond. You don’t have to gargle corporations balls. Removing things isn’t making your phones cheaper/better. There’s no reason to defend it.
Some of those things have some minor benefit to some users. There are plenty of people who like the reduced thickness that removing some of those features provides.
The issue is that corporations like money, and the big money guy (apple) removed those things and made more money so all the other guys figured they could too if they just copied that. Now all of us have to deal with the reduced functionality and options.
Yeah, incredibly minor. My phone has all the features that have subsequently been removed from newer models and is still only 6mm thick. I have a case on it and it’s still fine. But regardless. If people want thinner phones without that stuff, fine, make them. What we are bitching about is that there are NO options with the functions we want and practically everything has the same minuscule feature set these days. We want a variety of choices.
Fuck smart phones and neo feudalism. This is theft of ownership with a criminal complicit government. I applaud all Luigi’s these people deserve it. These are the killers of democracy. If your device only runs factory filtered stalkerware garbage, all democracy is dead. All information is easily filtered by this proprietary shit. Freedom of the press is a bullshit tiny niche of the broader requirement for a fully informed public. The fucking “press” is bullshit to highlight. You must have fully informed citizens and you may not choose how that information is shared or disseminated between citizens. This is not democracy. People are so fucking stupid.
Notice how the article implies Samsung and other corporations don’t want to do this, even though it’s something they’ve wanted to do for a long time? They almost certainly lobbied and ghost wrote most of this legislation to begin with; now they play the victim, even though they’re a perpetrator.
WTF just happened in Europe in the last few months. We used to be some sort of (dimmly lit) beacon of user freedom and privacy considerations. Now, I know there’s been a push for new legislations that basically fuck individual privacy over, but last I checked it was just a proposal. And now we’re doing a fucking 1260° turn toward full stanglehold on everything.
There’s also this article from yesterday: Austria legalises state spyware amidst strong opposition
i wonder what changed. these regulations are certainly a threat. they justified it with the “threat of (islamistic) terrorism”, though i don’t know what’s really going on there.
I mean, Mexico has never been a beacon of privacy or regulations (just for super specific technologies that were implemented first, mostly banking ones), but the government has also been pushing weird changes to how they handle surveillance and personal identifications, giving more power to the authorities while they’re exempt for most of the transparency laws (everything they do, even public infrastructure is managed as some kind of ‘state secret’).
I am scared.
It seems like “democracies” worldwide are taking advantage of Trump’s ascension and pushing these policies under the cover of night.
this is more or less the impression I get. Like all the shitheads are seeing just how much disgusting illegal shit trump is getting away with and thinking “I could do that too!”
I think it’s the rise of all the nazis - Lepens in France, Hitlerjugend Jimmy in Sweden, Orban,…
I’m not so sure about this. According to this article, in austria at least, it was the SPÖ (center) and ÖVP (center-conservative) parties that voted for surveillance, but the Grüne (greens/center-left) and FPÖ (far-right/nazis) that voted against it.
An uncertified device can no longer be … used
Oh, fuck. Call the French, they have the most active civil society that actually can burn a thing or two during a week or two. That is the craziest law ever, denying the most basic human rights! That is literally a prohibition of DIY of any kind.
You connect a wire to a battery and you just created an illegal transmitter!
Yes. I guess no more nine volt batteries in Europe. Or maybe we should focus on banning the sale of assorted lengths of wire.
Chat message scanning can come in October, age verification is also introduced in various countries. Things are getting serious.
The EU doesn’t get to point at Trump’s authoritarianism and feel all smug when they do this shit. Sorry.
So what? Linux computers are not compliant, can not use wifi, or what? I don’t see how that prevents unlockable bootloaders, other than being used as an excuse by the manufacturers.
Any device that transmits radio frequencies wont be able to be sold in the EU.
The only way a manufacturer can be sure that won’t happen is to create their hardware such that it isn’t usable unless it can be sure its in an environment which won’t do that.
Currently, that would mean a machine running Secure Boot and Windows 11 using driver signing.
Linux wouldn’t be able to fake the verification to the hardware, due to not having the keys, and so could not create drivers for any hardware designed this way.
Hold up so theyre banning flippers and portapacks etc?
Oh yeah, almost certainly; and software defined radios of all types.
If you don’t control the device, you don’t own the device.
what an utter bullshit! will the manufacturer be also directly held liable if someone uses a phone of their brand to make a picture about me without authorization! of fucking course not!
fuck samsung, and all the manufacturers that follow suit, because this is just not needed.
but also fuck the red directive’s decision makers for their unsatiable creep of wanting ever more power over our devices! this is exactly like saying, that there is this illegal thing, and if you are not doing it, but just have the slightest ability to do it, that is also illegal. what the actual fuck! get off my fucking phone you scumbags!!
Wait, what does that mean for USB LTE devices? Devices that you can attack to a desktop computer to give you mobile internet. Last time i checked, they’re widely available.
Would these become illegal as well?
This is really badly written, and that particularly annoys me because the subject matter is actually important.
Wait - is this about all radio devices or only mobile connectivity ones?
I.e., is WiFi affected as well? Or does it only affect internet that you access through your carrier?
The article says:
From 1 August 2025, new provisions will come into force RED Directive (Radio Equipment Directive), which redefines the compliance requirements for all radio devices sold in Europe.
Which technically would also affect WiFi.
IIRC they’re already doing this in China. I got hold of a chinese phone a while ago, and there was no way to install your own OS on it, you just had to use what came pre-installed, and i don’t know how much state-sponsored surveillance was on that.
Has anyone verified what this article says?
Here’s the directive in question: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2014/53/oj/eng It doesn’t seem to imply what the article implies.
Also, here are some things from the discussion on HN
As is usual, there seems to be a massive misunderstanding what the directive is and means. The TLDR is that the directive contains no clauses that compels phone makers to keep the Android bootloader locked or that forbids EU users from unlocking it.
Samsung’s public reasoning might be that disabling unlocking the bootloader because of the directive, but there is nothing in the directive that forces them to lock the bootloader. It does sound like a convenient scapegoat if they don’t want to talk about the real reasons though.
The phone makes who end up disabling the unlocking of bootloaders are all doing so on their own accord, not because some regulation is forcing them to.
Finally, the EU’s broader right-to-repair policies makes it kind of impossible that an outright prohibition of unlocking the bootloader could happen. But of course, nuance doesn’t make people click article titles on the web…
Not a coincidence that this comes I to existence just after TPM requirements. They want to lock everyone into using only government approved software. The death of freedom and liberty.
Like how the cellular module is proprietary and locked down, even on something like a Librem phone. Or like how DVD players had to use proprietary software to force comply with DRM.
