Volla - The freedom Smartphone from Germany.

Once again: Please stick to the facts. We are not attacking the Graphene OS team. We are clarifying the intent behind UnifiedAttestation and have invited the Graphene OS team to participate. Vollaficationist is not an account belonging to Volla Systeme or any Volla Systeme employee. It makes no sense to repeat our arguments; instead, let us describe UnifiedAttestation from a different perspective: Today, some apps use Google Play Integrity. These are primarily banking, payment, and digital ID apps. In some countries, citizens rely on these apps because government-issued ID apps, for example, are a prerequisite for opening a bank account. We view this development critically. To be able to offer alternative Android operating systems to all users without limitations, UnifiedAttestation is an open-source, freely available alternative to Google Play Integrity. We see a greater chance of convincing app developers and publishers who currently use Google Play Integrity to adopt an alternative rather than to abandon Google Play Integrity altogether. However, this persuasion will only succeed if app developers and publishers see a relevant market. Hence the consortium. Perhaps we will even succeed in making UnifiedAttestation an open standard. Once again, for clarification: UnifiedAttestation should not be a prerequisite for apps to be installed and used on alternative Android systems—not at all. It concerns a small subset of apps that currently prevents customers from using an alternative Android operating system. Regarding your statement about Volla as a hardware manufacturer. That is a false statement. Volla Systems is an OEM with complex supply chains for its own hardware, in which our designers and engineers are involved, and with its own production capacities for the final production steps. This gives us full access to the source code generated in the supply chain, starting with the Android source tree of the SoC manufacturer. Let’s make good products and develop the market for alternatives.

We posted a thread on our Mastodon instance addressing the underhanded attacks being made on GrapheneOS by Volla due to our opposition to their Unified Attestation API: @GrapheneOS/116251325625494349" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/11… An account previously pretending to be a fan supporting Volla has been clearly exposed as run by them. Despite how this account has previously posted, it began repeatedly posting on behalf of Volla and referring to themselves as being part of it. They referenced Volla contacting us half a year ago wanting a partnership with us which didn't go anywhere as they're unable to meet our requirements. We've opposed Unified Attestation on very reasonable grounds which we've once again elaborated on in the linked thread after covering this. This account clearly run by Volla themselves has repeatedly posted outrageous conspiracy theories about GrapheneOS implying we're working for the US government. We included links to a history of posts predating our opposition to Unified Attestation where they engage in false marketing of Volla products and try to convince people to use those over other options with inaccurate claims. That includes them replying to threads where people discussed GrapheneOS. They were misleading people about GrapheneOS prior to us speaking of them. They're now attacking us in a super underhanded way because we oppose them seizing control over which devices and operating systems are allowed for European banking/government apps. Don't allow them to memory hole this. The account is very clearly run by Volla, has openly acknowledged it and proven it with insider knowledge. We also have a very good idea of exactly who is running the account due to the writing style. These companies using sockpuppet accounts and personal accounts to attack us doesn't lessen it.

Please stick to the facts. To clarify: It is legal to release and sell proprietary software like Apple and Google do. UnifiedAttestation is not proprietary software. It is planned to be fully open-source and freely available software (FOSS). For an alternative to Google Play Integrity to succeed, it is necessary to attract developers who currently use Google Play Integrity. This, in turn, requires a system that enables verification and certification independent of OEMs and operating system manufacturers and is used by many of these manufacturers. A compatibility to these apps, that are currently not running on alternative Android operating systems, will increase the appeal of this alternatives. There will be no requirement for apps to use UnifiedAttestation. The goal is simply to ensure compatibility with apps that currently use Google Play Integrity. It is therefore the exact opposite of a restriction on competition or a cartel. It is an initiative for an open standard that even goes beyond Android. The consortium is currently informal and still in the formal founding process. Graphene OS is invited to help shape UnifiedAttestation, just as we have invited Graphene OS in the past to collaborate and partner with us regarding your operating system and our hardware. Volla OS is not based on Lineage OS, but on AOSP. It is true that Volla OS uses elements from Lineage OS and other free open source projects. In addition, it includes our own services and apps. As an OEM, we have full access to all levels of the firmware, which we carefully review, clean up, and harden. This makes a difference. Maintaining our operating system includes updates to the kernel and device drivers, AOSP, and all other components. This commitment is verifiable through the publication of our source code. Through UnifiedAttestation, we aim to demonstrate the system’s security via an independent third party as well as through transparent, public testing procedures and test reports. UnifiedAttestation is an initiative born from the realization that, despite competition, collaboration on shared challenges makes sense. It is good that there is not just a single provider of an alternative operating system. It is a sign of a relevant market. Let’s bring great products to market! You, Volla and all the other players.

> UnifiedAttestation is legal because the software is an independent, non-derivative work. It's not legal because it's an anti-competitive cartel from several companies collaborating to ban using anything other than the products of the companies participating in it. It's irrelevant that it's open source, which doesn't change that it's a centralized anti-competitive system. A court isn't going to care whether your centralized system has open source code. > > The proposed system is open source under the permissive Apache 2.0 license. The verification and certification process will be transparent and independent of the respective OEM. For-profit companies choosing what's permitted to be used and imposing rules on others who want to be permitted is inherently anti-competitive and against the law. We're already in the process of winning a lawsuit and we can accept spending a bunch of money on winning another too. That's not an idle threat and you should seriously consider whether you want a legal conflict with us in multiple jurisdictions over this. > The consortium is already much larger than the manufacturers mentioned, and Graphene OS is invited to participate and contribute for improvements. GrapheneOS will not participate in an anti-competitive system that's illegal under Canadian law and is clearly being made to permit the products of those participating regardless of their atrocious security. The system needs to be discontinued rather than GrapheneOS being invited to join it which isn't going to happen. GrapheneOS was not invited to participate until we publicly posted about this. We would have happily spoken our mind about this in private years ago to explain why it's completely unacceptable. You chose to involve multiple companies which have spent years trying to mislead people about GrapheneOS including with vile attacks on our team to promote their products. You only invited us because we strongly publicly opposed the system and it isn't going to change that we oppose it. We could have steered you away from making a completely unacceptable system years ago but now you're going to need to discontinue it after all of this work on it. Your companies selling phones and operating systems cannot be the ones deciding what's permitted. It's inherently anti-competitive and should never have been attempted. This should only be done by multiple independent third parties with a decentralized system not requiring any centralized service. Android hardware attestation is perfectly usable without you building a centralized service on top of it. You could be distributing a signed list of approved roots and approved verified boot key fingerprints for Android hardware attestation instead of fully seizing control with a centralized service. That would still be immensely problematic due to the companies making the products being in charge of what's allowed but at least it could work alongside others instead of seizing full control with a centralized service. > UnifiedAttestation's intention is to promote competition and it has the potential to attract app developers who currently use Google Play Integrity, thereby making alternatives even more appealing to consumers. It does the opposite of promoting competition. It takes an API which is actually open and permits trusting arbitrary roots of trust and operating systems to build a centralized system giving you control over what's allowed on top of it. > Regarding Volla OS: Security patches are released monthly, as well as vendor security patches as soon as they become available. Major firmware and kernel updates are also applied. The Volla Phone Quintus will soon receive a kernel 6.6 update. Android doesn't backport all of the patches to older releases. Keeping up with kernel updates would mean regularly shipping LTS revisions. You aren't actually keeping up with updates at all. The pace you ship partial security backports being monthly doesn't mean you're shipping all of the Android security patches monthly or keeping up with kernel updates on a monthly basis. You're working with companies which do far worse than you do and mislead users about what's provided including setting an inaccurate Android security patch even if that's something Volla hasn't done themselves. It was your choice to work with Murena and iodé including giving them a say over what's permitted. discuss.grapheneos.org/d/24134-device…

Android provides a standard hardware attestation system with support for alternate operating systems via allowing their verified boot key fingerprints. It's mainly used with Google's root of trust and remote key provisioning service but the API supports alternative roots of trust. Volla's Unified Attestation is fully built on Android's hardware attestation API. It solely exists to create a centralized authority and service determining what's allowed under their control. @volla/116238706890314617" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">mastodon.social/@volla/1162387… Unified Attestation will permit using products from the companies involved in it while forbidding using arbitrary alternatives. They clearly aren't going to enforce reasonable security standards since their products wouldn't meet those. The whole purpose of the system is to permit their products regardless of merit and convince banking/government apps to adopt it. There's nothing neutral or fair about a system controlled by companies approving their own products while disallowing other options. Companies forming an anti-competitive cartel providing a service which permitting their products and while disallowing others isn't legal regardless of how they market it. It's not legal when Google does it with the Play Integrity API and it's not legal when it's Volla, Murena and iodé doing it. We won't be participating in a system which gives these companies veto power over app compatibility on GrapheneOS. These companies will not be given the power to make arbitrary demands of GrapheneOS. We've been talking back and forth with multiple regulators over the past several years about the Play Integrity API to have action taken against it. Unified Attestation is a massive disruption to our efforts and will get in the way of having regulators take action against this. We've also been considering filing a lawsuit against Google over the Play Integrity API. Unlike Google, the companies involved in Unified Attestation don't have massive resources to defend their anti-competitive system. Android's standard hardware API doesn't require delegating verification to a centralized service. One or more neutral organizations could exist certifying devices and operating systems without providing a centralized API. Those organizations could simply provide signed releases with the roots of trust, revoked keys and operating system key fingerprints. Apps could use multiple different certifying organizations. This is already something Android's hardware attestation API fully supports today. Volla, Murena and iodé are each a for-profit company selling devices. Each of them has failed to keep up with important security patches and protections. Each has marketed their products as providing a level of security they don't provide. It's very clear why these 3 companies want to be in charge of choosing which devices and operating systems people are allowed to use. They want to make sure their products are permitted and want to have an advantage over others to boost their profits. Unified Attestation is an anti-competitive cartel turning a decentralized decision into a centralized one. Instead of neutral organizations being formed to certify devices without a massive conflict of interest, these companies will sign off on their products regardless of the level of insecurity. Multiple competing companies forming a cartel which locks out other options is not legal. We're fully willing to file one or more lawsuits over this. It should be discontinued now prior to harming us.

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Strong regions need digital sovereignty. We support initiatives like Nieuw West-Brabant that strengthen local communities, sustainable economies, and regional resilience. nieuwwestbrabant.nl #DigitalSovereignty #Privacy #Volla #LocalEconomy

We are thrilled to introduce the latest chapter in our long-running partnership with @hello_volla! From the original Volla Phone in 2020, through the Volla Phone X, X23, Quintus, and the Volla Tablet, this collaboration has always shared a single core belief: your privacy is not a feature, it is a right. The Plinius carries that philosophy forward with some serious hardware upgrades, and we are proud to be part of it. Read more about it: hide.me/en/blog/introd…

The feedback is impressive! Thank you very much for your great support. We are delighted that the initiative has been so well received 🙏🫂 korben.info/un-consortium-… netzwoche.ch/news/2026-03-0…

Today the EU Parliament said NO. ❌ Voluntary scanning by Outlook, Gmail, LinkedIn, etc. might come to an end on April 6 in the EU. Keep pushing everyone! 👏🥳

WE DID IT! And now, we brings SSTP to iOS, macOS, and tvOS – an industry first. No other VPN provider offers SSTP on Apple platforms. We just changed that. We’ve always believed that real freedom online means having the right tool for the right situation. Today, we’re taking that belief one step further: we are now the first and only VPN provider to offer SSTP (Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol) support on iOS, macOS, and tvOS. Learn all about it here: hvpn.link/zN8Uz

We launched an industry consortium to develop UnifiedAttestation — we want to remove barriers for Google-free mobile operating systems 📲 Learn more: 👉 openpr.de/news/1305873/V… #Volla #VollaOS #opensource #software #hardware #UnifiedAttestation

@GrapheneOS The opposite is true: this is an initiative for an open-source, transparent, and publicly verifiable certification. The Graphene OS team is also invited to join the consortium or simply use UnifiedAttestation for free. The intention is to promote competition and alternatives.

We strongly oppose the Unified Attestation initiative and call for app developers supporting privacy, security and freedom on mobile to avoid it. Companies selling phones should not be deciding which operating systems people are allowed to use for apps. uattest.net

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You told ChatGPT things you wouldn't tell your browser history. You had a VPN running, so you felt covered. That VPN was the one selling the conversation. Free VPNs don't charge you. So the product isn't the VPN - it's the traffic flowing through it. Including every word of every AI conversation you thought was private. The more private something feels, the less people verify whether it actually is. Free tools are built on top of that gap. Full breakdown: hide.me/en/blog/your-f…

See this interesting article about the new Volla Phone Plinius: chip.de/news/handy/sma… #volla #vollaOS #opensource #software #hardware

Tired of Gmail ads? You’re not alone. 😒 Here’s how to block them (at least most of them): 1️⃣ Go to Settings → "See all settings" 2️⃣ Open the Inbox tab 3️⃣ Uncheck Promotions, Social, and Forums 4️⃣ Hit Save ✅ Or skip the hassle: switch to Tuta Mail🔒💌 More: 👉 tuta.com/blog/block-gma…

Brand new Murena Volla tablet! The Murena Volla tablet with the /e/OS operating system offers a privacy-focused Android experience. Enjoy secure use without your personal data being collected. murena.com/de/laden/smart… #volla #murena #tablet

App integrity shouldn’t be complicated. Check Unified Attestation: • Single backend • Offline verification • No device IDs • Easy integration Android developers: Join the initiative 👉uattest.net #volla #vollaOS #opensource #software #unifiedattestation

Escape the Matrix – with an Android free from Big Tech. The new Volla Phone Plinius: IP68 ✔️ Dimensity 7300 ✔️ Up to 12 GB RAM ✔️ Security Mode ✔️ Robust. Intelligent. Private. Now available for pre-order. #Volla #VollaOS #opensource #software #hardware #UbuntuTouch