Starting today, apps made by state and federal governments are getting a new government badge to help users better identify official apps.

Starting today, apps made by state and federal governments are getting a new government badge to help users better identify official apps.

The badge will first appear on over 3,000 apps for 12 different countries.

    • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zipEnglish
      291·
      6 months ago

      Apparently TikTok has said they would actually prefer to shutdown US operations rather than sell.

      It would be hilarious to imagine a government run tiktok.

      Oh my job? I scroll TikTok all day looking for morons posting crimes they do online and tagging them to be forwarded to local police departments.

      • dan@upvote.auEnglish
        15·
        6 months ago

        Oh my job? I scroll TikTok all day looking for morons posting crimes they do online and tagging them to be forwarded to local police departments.

        I have no doubt that some police departments actually do this. You can gather a lot of intelligence from public posts by people that aren’t very intelligent.

        I’ve seen policy bodycam videos on YouTube where the police knew where to find a criminal with a warrant because they were on TikTok or a similar site, bragging about some crime they committed, and tagged the location.

  • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.deEnglish
    25·
    6 months ago

    We still need more government apps on F-Droid. EU’s OSS strategy suggests that we’ll have them eventually. I don’t think such badge will ever exist there, though.

  • AlecSadler@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    523·
    6 months ago

    This makes no sense. In my entire software development career, no government agency ever built an app in-house. It’s always contracted, to random individuals or companies. So this badge is garbage.

    • GreenEngineering3475@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      43·
      6 months ago

      The badge is to help people identify official apps.

      I think it’s not about that development but whom the data is being sent to, the state or some third party that provides same services.

      Like a National Emergency Broadcast app or app for vehicle and driver’s license registration service, that need sensitive info like your Govt ID and other details.

    • helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      6 months ago

      The point is you know its an official app and not some scam or independently ran group posing as an official government app

      Who cares if they outsourced the development? The point is they have an app, and the badge tells you its legit (assuming we can trust the badge and its not trivial to trick google into giving any app the badge).