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A comment on You Want to Visit the UK? You Better Have a Google Play or App Store Account. Parent comment

Re:You Want to Visit the UK? You Better Have a Google Play o... by hsiudh on Thursday February 26, 2026 @11:00AM (#47167826)
That is not a `good reason`, that is `convenience` and it shouldn't be used to push to install an app from increasingly hostile nations/corporations.

> It's not like they are getting some long term benefit of having the app on your phone. It's just because WebNFC can't read passports.

The same way we complain that Facebook, Tiktok, etc gather too much data from app install, so can a government agency.

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Re:You Want to Visit the UK? You Better Have a Google Play o... by martinald on Thursday February 26, 2026 @12:55PM (#47169544)
You are literally sharing biometric passport information with the government for an ETA in this app. Information sharing is the whole point.
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Re:You Want to Visit the UK? You Better Have a Google Play o... by ozlikethewizard on Thursday February 26, 2026 @01:05PM (#47169673)
The information on my passport is of comparatively little value compared to the information on my devices. Most states could get my passport information with little more than a friendly request to my government, same for most, access to my phone however.

Why give up more information than is strictly necessary, so you can tap your passport on your phone? Not convincing imo.

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Re:You Want to Visit the UK? You Better Have a Google Play o... by martinald on Saturday February 28, 2026 @06:01AM (#47193627)
Because for many people with poor eyesight, poor English or computer literacy tapping a passport is far easier than typing the data in with no risk of transcription errors.
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