Anyone who is dissatisfied with the politics of a state of which they are not citizens has little individual influence. A popular method of public expression of discontent is the demonstrative boycott of products from the respective country. The Danish population is largely offended by US President Trump’s desire to add Greenland to the United States. An obviously noticeable proportion of Danes now want to boycott US products and are relying on app support to do so. At least two origin analysis apps have made it onto the Danish iPhone charts. UdenUSA is currently in first place. It relies on customers taking photos of a product; Using large language models, products are recognized and the place of production and place of manufacture are determined. If you want to scan more than three products per day, you must take out a subscription. Made O’Meter is also at number 19 in the Danish app charts – this free app also allows text input in addition to photography. It indicates the origin and manufacturer, along with a description of the company’s history. Artificial intelligence is also used here. It is worth mentioning that Made O’Meter says it does not collect or analyze user data.
Made O’Meter analyzes the origin of supermarket products.
Increasing sovereignty efforts across the EU
Due to various foreign policy actions by the US government in the past twelve months, there is a growing desire across Europe to become more independent of the United States in a wide variety of sectors. For example, the Go European portal helps you find European alternatives to US products. At the turn of the year, Di.Day, proposed by author Marc-Uwe Kling (Känguru Chronicles, Qualityland), ensured that every first Sunday of the month should be dedicated to digital independence. To achieve this, events should take place in as many places as possible. The goal: to collect and disseminate practical instructions for switching from large platforms such as Amazon, Google and Facebook to decentralized or local alternatives. Kling presented the initiative in a lecture at the 39th Chaos Communication Congress.
