Let me ask you a question: do you control your software or does it control you? This should be an obvious one, you would think. Of course, I own my software… After all, I decide when I open what app, how long I use it and how I use.

Is that right? Do you really decide how much time you spend on each app and how you use it?

The problem with modern day software

Modern day software is closed-source. This not only means that the source code is not available to the public to audit, but no one can contribute to the project either. This affects you even if you don’t know how to code, because closed-source projects have total control over their users through their terms of service.

Let us analyze an example of said control:

(extracted from Discord TOS)

As we can see, you offer Discord the permission to almost do anything with your content, which includes:

• Messages
• Images (may include your memes, personal photos, profile picture etc.)
• Voice calls

This is especially dangerous in a hivemind like environment such as Discord, where you don’t give too much thought to what you post and say. What’s more is that your discord messages are not encrypted in any way, which is a VERY BIG red flag, considering that one of Discord’s biggest investors is Tencent, a Chinese company. Thus, all of your data on Discord now belongs to the CCP as well, because all Chinese companies are required to report back the data they collect to the government.

(your data is not yours and we 'may' keep it for as long as we want)

Examples of abuses of privacy and control over users can be seen in all closed-source projects, without exception.

Why care about data collection?

I have nothing to hide! So why would I care about my online privacy?

This statement is so common, that I figured people don’t even think about what it means before mentioning it. Obviously, saying that you don’t care about privacy is a lie and I will prove it to you:

• You wouldn’t show your teacher your phone’s content.
• You have some kind of password protection on your phone.
• You wouldn’t show your own parents your phone’s content.
• You wouldn’t let a random person on the street look into your laptop.
• You wouldn’t show your gallery to your employer.
• You wouldn’t want an anonymous person to know where you live.

However, when it comes to online privacy, we let every big tech company know us better than we know ourselves. YouTube knows exactly the topics you are interested in and what kind of entertainment content you enjoy. Instagram knows what type of people you would be friends with. Tinder knows what type of people you would date. TikTok has hundreds of data-points about you, knowing anything from your favourite color to your deepest concerns about real life.

Why is it dangerous? These companies’ profit model is to keep you on their platform for as much as possible: that’s how they maximize their profits. So, they will do anything in their power to have a monopoly on your attention span. It’s not unusual to see people glued to their phone’s screen for 8 hours a day.

Everything you do online is influenced by these companies, in one way or another. They control what’s cool, trends, ideas, mentalities, and the worst part is: you don’t even know you are being manipulated. The best way to control a population is to hijack their decisions, making them think they are choosing for themselves, when in fact, you are the one choosing for them.

Subscription models

Another nice feature of proprietary software is that you don’t actually own it, but instead are allowed to use it. Companies realised that charging for software once is a bad business model, so they had the brilliant idea to charge you monthly. In theory, it sounds like a win-win situation: you pay less and companies get more money, but over time you end up paying more than a 1 time purchase, and when you finally decide to end your subscription, you lose everything you paid for up to that point.

Everything is subscription based nowadays, but one notorious actor is Adobe. It used to be that you could pay once for Photoshop, but now you can only use it if you pay a monthly fee. This creates an endless loop where the user always comes back for another month, in order to continue working on their projects. Thus, Adobe has a monopoly over digital media creation software, and most users are stuck with it.

Closed-source creating walled gardens

The reasons we, as humanity managed to advance so much is because we worked together to achieve certain goals. We live in a day where technology is our most powerful tool. However, having closed-source software rule our ecosystems means we are limited to what the developer wants us to do with their software.

We’ve come to a point where we are forced to use some software because everyone else uses it. Whether we talk about Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, Whatsapp, Instagram or iMessage, we can observe how society adopted these programs as an open standard, when in fact they are far from it.

It used to be that software was built on standards, not the other way around. For example, chat protocols like XMPP, IRC, Matrix do not have their own messaging applications, but other developers created software integrating these programs. Web protocols, programming languages, server protocols are all open-source, because you cannot have a standard be governed by one single entity. Decentralisation is key to a better internet and better technology.

Big tech companies want us to relocate ourselves inside their own walled garden, so they can get as much profit off of us as they can. This is why there exists such a thing as the trend of iPhones being cool and Androids being for poor people, even though Samsungs can be more expensive than iPhones.

The solution: free and open-source software

What is free software?

Free software is not only free of cost, but also open to the public. This means that anyone can audit, modify or redistribute the source code. FOSS solves the problems mentioned above because no tracking and manipulation technology can be implemented in this software, because anyone would be able to see what the developers were up to. Free software evolved a lot, to the point where today you can replace 100% of your computational activities with programs that respect your freedoms.

Examples of free and open source software:

These programs are immediate replacements to the proprietary software you are currently using. Integrating as many of the programs listed below as possible will give you a better computer experience, better privacy and as a result, a better lifestyle.

Linux

Linux is the most popular open-source project. It is a kernel written entirely in C, and it is widely used on servers, but also on desktops and phones (under Android). You should definitely replace your current operating system on your desktop / laptop with Linux. A post about Linux will come by soon.

Firefox

Firefox is the only viable alternative to Chromium based browsers. Although it does not provide the best privacy outside the box, it being open source allowed a new family of privacy-friendly browsers to exist. For the average user, the experience is exactly the same as Chrome, without all the spyware and ads. It even allows you to import all of your bookmakers when installed. Note that for maximum privacy you need to configure Firefox.

Element

Element is a messenger application using the decentralised, federated chat protocol Matrix. You get to choose the server your data is stored on (encrypted) and you can interact with any other user, regardless of their server or client. In simpler words, multiple chat applications can communicate with each other through multiple servers. With the power of decentralisation, your data is safe and, in case of a server being compromised, you can always switch to another.

Signal

Signal is a centralised messenger application. It requires a phone number, but is easy to use and similar to other proprietary messenger apps. Messages are encrypted by default (verifiable through open-source). If you are not willing to set up a Matrix account, you should use Signal instead of WhatsApp.

Not convinced yet?

Here is a YouTube video that should cover anything that I missed out on. You should definitely only use libre software.