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Good luck with that
Become ungovernable.
If Linux became the most used OS on the planet, wouldn’t more people be interested in finding vulnerabilities to exploit in it? People used to claim Mac didn’t get viruses. But it wasn’t because it was impervious; it was because it wasn’t widespread enough to be worthwhile to make anything for it.
Linux is not the most used but it is used in some of the most important places. An exploit on Linux is still very useful, while there are very few Apple servers still running.
This is framed with is in mind but the place where this actually happens the most is mobile apps.
It’s difficult to protect your contact info when everyone with you in their contracts gives access to candy crush. It’s the one I see the most and know who does it because those people will show up in the “you might know this person” shit.
As a home user the OS thing is preference, some prefer Windows, some Mac, some Linux, etc.
Your post however raises a good point, and it certainly makes me form an opinion in a greater context. Thanks for making me think about this, genuinely - it’s good to have opinions challenged.
Thanks for making me think about this, genuinely - it’s good to have opinions challenged.
Not me. I plan to continue being a sweaty holier-than-thou neck beard and mock people using Windows. Brb gotta write to my dentist about how good Linux is now and recommending Arch to my general doctor who still uses a computer from 2010.
My wife and I just had this conversation a couple days ago where she pointed out that she has all the same documents as me on her computer and she uses Windows. I had to acknowledge that was definitely a hole in my privacy, so we concluded the conversation with the decision that she will start using Linux too. But you’re right, the solution needs to be bigger.
That’s why I demand (nag constantly) that everyone around me run Linux 🤣
Jk we’re all doomed to live in an Orwellian dystopia
(me screaming at the gas station attendant from behind the bulletproof glass)
BRO CHANGE YOUR OS!
i just like linux, I am not cool or edgy using it but its a nice/fast os :(
What drives me nuts about this subject is rarely spoken about.
No single company can properly compensate all of their users for the damages caused by mishandling their personal data.
In fact the damages may even be too great for the government to properly compensate said users.
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No, you need to demand that government organizations use Linux or other open source systems as well, there is no other way.
You can require Microsoft to comply with rules, it won’t. It doesn’t care, it wants money, and more money, and that is it. It’s been like that since it’s inception. The same goes for all other tech companies
You know what brand doesn’t careuch about money and will respect your privacy?
Open source software. Linux. Firefox (eh, mostly) with plugins, mariadb, etc…
We can’t even get the government to stop using Twitter.
I once took a government contract for rebuilding a critical piece of software to provide civic services to the under-employed.
I finished it in about a month. Was paid. And I was on a retainer for three years to provide updates.
It actually took FOUR years before it was launched live to the general public.
Best of luck convincing the underpaid govt IT to move OSes.
If you believe the duly elected people have less power than a corporation, well, that’s also a “we” problem
You speak the truth.
privacy is scary stuff if you think. it’s like, i care so i dont share my phone number with facebook, but someone out there may have my number/address/name on their contact list and chances are big that they have no problem sharing with zuck. so i’ll still end up on zuck’s database.
My dad did that. The man has a slight obsession with collecting information about our entire extended family, as far back as he can go in time. He’s been known to get in touch with small municipalities to ask for their records about someone 8 generations back. He’s collated quite a bit of data over the years.
And then one day he went and loaded all of that into a shitty mobile family tree app. Phone numbers, current addresses, email addresses, photos, a shit ton of personal information of a shit ton of people, uploaded to some random developer’s unknown database without their consent. He didn’t even pause to think about it for one second. I told him what he did, he wasn’t even bothered.
There are tons of people like my dad who don’t have a single cell in their entire bodies that gives a flying fuck about data privacy, unfortunately, and they give out everyone’s data along with their own.
I just activated my checking account with PayPal and one of the questions from the verification battery was asking me which email I recognized. They were different domains of my mother’s ISP email that she uses only with Amazon.
I had the urge to answer incorrectly as if that would remove their association.
Don’t forget with the Recall feature, you may be on Linux and are using a secure communication application, but if who you are talking to is on windows your conversation can be scraped.
So it’s not enough to brag about being on Linux ourselves, we should be encouraging our friends to switch to Linux as well?
How’s this different from someone just record your call? The thing you are worrying about has been possible long before Recall is a thing.
this goes for pretty much every single chat app out there. most of the popular ones are proprietary and go through private servers.
privacy is important kids.
Same thing with email. It’s all well and good if you’re using ProtonMail or Tuta or Posteo, but you’re still cooked if the other side is using Gmail.
Old problems, new modi operandi.
You can send self destructing messages with Protonmail
Do Proton remotely erase the message on the recipient’s email server? Even if it’s not a protonmail server?
Someone correct me if I’m wrong because I don’t know how proton works on this. These type of things usually don’t send the protected content in the email to the recipient’s server, they just send a link that the recipient opens and it’s all still kept on the private service’s server.
They burn down the datacenter if they are not deleted in time.
Good morning, Mr. Phelps.
Afaik, with proton you can send messages that won’t open through gmail if you protect them with a password. The other person receives a message with a link to open the mail in a browser after entering the password. It’s not the easiest solution but if you want to avoid gmail from knowing the contents of a message, you can do that.
But windows recall scrapes your screen, so even that wouldn’t work.
“But they are stored locally! Certainly, Microsoft won’t have access to those, right? Right???”
True
It’s not like companies that use Linux don’t get breached either. Your personal data is in thousands of databases that have varying levels of security. Personal choices don’t affect any of that, regulations like GDPR are what’s needed.
getting breached is different from using spyware.
GDPR has much the same problem: it can only actually be enforced against entities with a presence in Europe. When Europeans do international business, the GDPR only protects them if that foreign site has a business presence within Europe. When they have no bank accounts or business assets inside the EU, they are not subject to the GDPR.
Even though the GDPR covers your side, it doesn’t always cover the other side.
That’s why I said “regulations like the GDPR”. The US and other blocs need similar regulations. Especially the US is important, as they’ve shown that they’re willing to stretch the size of their jurisdiction to sometimes absurd lengths.
That’s usually a bad thing, but in this case that might be good.
I think you missed my point…
I am not subject to the GDPR. I don’t have to abide by it. Even if my country adopted a GDPR-like regulation, that regulation would only apply to my privacy. Not yours.
Microsoft has proven themselves overtly hostile to privacy. Yours, mine, and everyone’s. The available options are:
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Attempt to regulate them into behaving like decent human beings.
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Avoid their business.
When my therapist is using a system that is overtly hostile to their privacy and mine, the solution is not to ask the government to chastise their attacker. The solution is to eliminate their reliance on their attacker, and get them in a system the attacker doesn’t control.
I’m not saying we should avoid GDPR-like regulation altogether. I’m saying that at the OS level, Linux is intrinsically compliant with the intent of such regulation but may not comply with the letter, if the letter requires some sort of affirmative confirmation or certification of compliance that would be complicated for the developer to implement.
Microsoft will be able to be technically compliant with the law, but will definitely subvert it’s intent and purpose however it can.
Even if my country adopted a GDPR-like regulation, that regulation would only apply to my privacy. Not yours.
That could depend on how the regulation is written, so we should push to have these new regulations cover all users of services hosted in our countries.
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I made a similar point in one of My blog articles
This is unrelated to the article you’re sharing now, but I read that (I agree thoroughly that the GDPR needs to be a start, but that it’s inconsistently followed/enforced) and then I saw and read your article about apathetic cis people who might be agender. That’s a neat perspective that I hadn’t considered before — I’m cis and very much not apathetic about my gender (and I sometimes experience dysphoria if I am not treated as my gender). However, I have a bunch of other friends who have described their attachment to their gender as being far more “meh”, and I am looking forward to getting a chance to discuss your article with them.
It strikes me that most of my friends are some flavour of LGBTQIA+, but I don’t know anyone who is agender. However, 10 years ago, many of my friends who now are non-binary didn’t know a term for their experience of gender, so identified as the closest they could find (such as lesbian). I wonder how many people I know who might find that “agender” feels like a fitting identity, if it were more prevalent in discourse etc.
I like your writing style. Nailed it.
