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Fix Your Phone Shop

Our smartphones are broken – together we can fix it

Fix Your Phone Shop visualisation - Waag Futurelab — © Kamila Eshmanova, Thieu Custers

Our smartphones are broken – and it’s not just a cracked screen. The problem is in the apps, the operating system, the hardware, and it affects your privacy, your health, and the health of our planet. The Fix Your Phone Shop by Waag Futurelab showcases the alternatives, and what we can do to fix it.

The problems with our phones

There is a whole world hidden behind your screen. Operating systems, hardware, apps – all parts of the mobile ecosystem necessary for your device to function. But why do we have to give up our privacy and personal data to use apps? Why are (almost) all phones and apps managed and controlled by two companies? Why are we allowing the heavily addictive design tricks that keep us scrolling endlessly? How many conflicts do we perpetuate with all the minerals in the device?

Fixing it

There is a solution. At the Fix Your Phone Shop by Waag Futurelab, you’ll discover alternatives for all parts of the mobile ecosystem: from secure apps to ethically produced hardware, and from open source operating systems to biodegradable phone cases. We showcase new possibilities and effective alternatives that contribute to privacy and sustainability in our mobile world. To make it more sustainable, privacy-proof and fair, and so that it works for you instead of the other way around.

About Waag Futurelab

Waag Futurelab operates at the intersection of art, science and technology. Through public research and design, Waag explores the social and cultural impact of new technologies and their application for social innovation. This is how Waag enables as many people as possible to design an open, fair and inclusive future.
Fix Your Phone Shop sign - Waag Futurelab — © Thieu Custers