Philippe Gervais
Philippe Gervais has a background in academia and software engineering. A reformed former big tech employee, he is now active with Digitale Gesellschaft / Société Numérique, a Swiss NGO defending fundamental rights in the digital space https://www.digitale-gesellschaft.ch.
He is particularly interested in questions of privacy, and in promoting digital sovereignty understood as self-determination and choice, at all levels - from individuals to countries.
He loves meeting and connecting people, come and chat!
Beitrag
Should democracy in Switzerland depend on the approval of Google and Apple?
While smartphones progressively become mandatory for essential services such as banking or interactions with the public administration, the duopoly of Apple and Google is getting more and more control over digital access. Through their dominance over the smartphone market, Google and Apple are in a position to act as gatekeepers for state functions like taxation and welfare distribution. The risk for Switzerland is real: as an example, the recently democratically voted e-ID system, could simply be blocked by US actors, despite being a tool made and chosen by Swiss citizens for Switzerland. This dependency undermines national self-determination and erodes individual autonomy, giving private and non-Swiss entities a de facto veto power over some governmental decisions. This talk analyzes the geopolitical and economic risks of this dependency and outlines strategies to ensure that the digital infrastructure supports democratic resilience rather than corporate monopoly.