Photo by Hauke-Christian Dittrich/picture alliance via Getty Images
Chris Kremidas-Courtney is an independent defense and security consultant, a senior advisor at the European Policy Center, a research associate at the Geneva Center for Security Policy, and a science fiction writer
It happened at the bank
I went to my Greek bank to replace my debit card, which was about to expire. After waiting my turn, I explained the reason for my visit, but I was told they couldn’t help me because I didn’t have an appointment. When I asked if I could simply make an appointment in person, I was advised to do so through the bank’s mobile app.
Once you notice this pattern, you’ll start seeing it everywhere.
A few months ago, I bought a new pair of German-made headphones. They wouldn’t connect to my laptop until I downloaded the manufacturer’s app.
I encountered the same digital barrier at a luxury hotel owned by one of Europe’s most famous French hotel groups. Expecting to find a room service menu and the usual guest guide, I instead discovered a book with pages filled with QR codes.
Even something as simple as ordering breakfast has turned into yet another trackable digital event. Interactions that were once analog and personal are now mediated and recorded by software on a phone.
Transportation companies, retailers, and governments—they’ve all embraced this trend. Each decision was made individually, but collectively they have created something none of them anticipated: a society in which participation increasingly depends on devices that citizens must purchase, maintain, and replace at their own expense.
Silicon Valley Has Nothing to Do With It
In Europe, there is a tendency to blame American tech giants for this, as if dependence on smartphones were merely another consequence of Silicon Valley’s insatiable appetite for data and control. But the companies setting these requirements are often European. They include a Greek bank, a German manufacturer, a French hotel group, as well as various European governments and transportation agencies.
American tech companies may provide operating systems, platforms, and devices, but European institutions prefer to make them mandatory. They decide that access to money, mobility, public services, and purchased goods must be facilitated through software on devices that their consumers are required to provide. Europe cannot credibly present itself as a defender of digital rights as long as its own companies and governments are steadily depriving people of the ability to live without a smartphone.
What is often called digital transformation also implies a transfer of responsibility. Institutions are cutting costs by replacing reception desks and phone lines with apps and chatbots, while citizens provide the equipment, internet access, and labor necessary for their operation.
Liberal democracy has always been based on the principle that citizens should be able to exercise their rights and participate in economic life without unnecessary barriers created by the state or government agencies. However, we have accepted a new condition for participation. Access to our money, transportation, healthcare, public services, and, increasingly, even the goods we purchase now depends on owning, carrying, and maintaining the smartphone we’ve bought.
Who suffers the most?
The greatest burden falls on those whose lifestyles do not align with modern realities. Older adults are increasingly dependent on relatives or caregivers to perform tasks they used to manage on their own.
This dependence undermines not only their autonomy but also their privacy, forcing them to share financial or medical data simply because institutions have changed the way these services are accessed. The same applies to people with disabilities, who are excluded from the system not because of the service itself, but because of how access to it is organized.
Proponents of this transformation point to convenience, efficiency, and safety. They are not wrong, but the problem arises when convenience ceases to be a choice and becomes a prerequisite. Freedom is restricted whenever participation depends on the purchase of a certain category of consumer technology, especially when it is not provided and is not optional.
For decades, Europe has strived to become a global leader in digital rights, privacy protection, and the regulation of online platforms. Now is the time to recognize the human right to access information. No one should be required to own, carry, or use a smartphone to access essential public or private services.
A society in which participation in public life is contingent on owning a private consumer device confuses technological progress with democratic rights and freedoms.
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