Link: https://www.heltweg.org/posts/you-want-to-visit-the-uk-you-better-have-a-google-play-or-app-store-account/

This is post is really wtf?

(Tinfoil hat on) Would be interesting to do an investigation on what the app is doing other than allowing you to register if they are insisting so much on having people install it.

Good to know. So I would borrow my mom's "senior's phone" if I ever go there. Yes, it has a camera. But it has no apps.

Then I can ask them for further hands-on help with how to do this on my phone :-)))

Tl;Dr you don't actually need the app, they just hid the button for the browser-based option pretty well.

Dumbphones are currently cool again – especially around younger people – and digital detox is also a thing, so it is actually plausible again to not have a smartphone.

But if I ever go for digital detox, then without any phone and any computer at all

(disregarding the microcontrollers in my photocamera).

Link:

• https://apply-for-an-eta.homeoffice.gov.uk/apply/electronic-travel-authorisation/how-to-apply

Requirements:

1. Take or upload a photo of the passport you will use to travel to the UK.
2. Scan your face with your device, if it has a camera. Children aged 9 and under will not be asked to scan their face.
3. Take or upload a photo of yourself.
4. Answer some questions about yourself.
5. Pay for your application.

Note:

• You will need to complete your application in one go - you cannot save your progress.
• If you do not do anything for 20 minutes, the service will time out. Your answers will be deleted and you will need to start again.
• By applying, you agree to the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) privacy notice.

Disgusting.

So, is this information you are submitting, including a photo of yourself and your passport, held just by the government? By private companies? Do they share the information with private companies, other areas of government? How long do they keep it, what are the rules?

That they don't tell you, and knowing them, data brokers, and the US government will have it right away. Just another piece of information taken from us without real consent, with no way to say no and still function in life, with no advisement of how it will be used, for what. Of how it will be stored and subsequently stolen by hackers.

This is small potatoes with everything going on in the UK right now, but it's emblamatic of the rot that has spread throughout the whole, now visible on the surface of the fascist veneer they paint over with Starmer's reasonable sounding fake voice and his ilk.

Classic dark pattern nonsense. Thanks for the link

To promote that "you need Google to enter the country".

Better yet: the app description says explicitly:

If you're applying for someone else they must be with you. If they are not, you should apply online at: https://www.gov.uk/electronic-travel-authorisation.

Which... Just brings you to said page that tries to get you to use the app...

Holy shit that's nasty. From the linked page

• Click the Apply for an ETA link
• Scroll down and click the green Start now > button
• Scroll down below the QR code and click the link I cannot apply on the UK ETA app.
  • Clicking the "the app is not available for my phone" link doesn't help you, it says to borrow a phone lmao
• Scroll down and click the Continue application online link

Scum! Which I guess is to be expected of the English.

That's what I'd expected if Monty Python tried to design this process for a sketch. Which... Is very British. So....