Do we really own our phone?

Imagine buying a car, only for the manufacturer to abandon spare parts a few years later. You take it in for routine maintenance, but official motor oil is no longer produced. A third-party brand makes an identical, high-grade replacement. You use it. Yet the moment you reach the highway toll booth, an automated scanner denies entry because your oil lacks the original manufacturer’s digital signature.

Nobody would accept this. Why do we accept it on our smartphones?

When we purchase a phone, we pay for full ownership, yet it feels like a lease. Phone makers decide when perfectly good hardware becomes trash simply by refusing to provide software updates.

The community has already proven this is an artificial problem. There are independent groups of developers (like LineageOS) who create software updates for older phones, keeping devices like the 2016 Samsung Galaxy S7 alive, secure, and running perfectly today.

But phone companies and tech giants fight back using three main tricks:

• Locked bootloaders: Companies put a digital lock on the phone’s core system. Even though you bought the hardware, they refuse to give you the key to install a different, up-to-date system when they abandon yours.

• App blocking: Even if you manage to install a safe, community-made system to keep your phone alive, gatekeepers like Google step in. They flag your phone as “untrusted” and block essential everyday apps, like banking, transit cards, and digital IDs from working.

• The “Security” Excuse: Companies claim they block alternative software for your safety. But in reality, privacy-focused community systems are often much more secure than the outdated software the manufacturer left you with. These blocks aren’t protecting users, they are protecting corporate control.

Why Legislative Action Is Needed

The “Right to Repair” cannot stop at physical screwdrivers and screen replacements. It must include software. A repaired, up-to date device should not be treated as a threat or hacked device.

If the EU can mandate replaceable batteries, it can guarantee our right to control the software on the devices we own. We need laws that guarantee:

• Give Us the Keys: Phone makers must provide a simple, immediate way to unlock our devices. No waiting periods, no forcing us to create special accounts. If we buy the hardware, we get the keys, like when we buy a lock.

• Stop Punishing Safe Phones: The security chips inside our phones must be allowed to recognize any key we want to install. An alternative operating system shouldn’t automatically trigger a phone’s alarm bells.

• Keep Essential Apps Working: It should be illegal for critical apps (like banking, government ID, or public transit) to block you simply because you chose to install a different system to keep your phone alive.

True ownership means the freedom to maintain, fix, and preserve what you buy. It is time for European law to make our devices truly ours.