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Pretty sure we all know that. I’ve been using Linux full time for about 8 years now. I’m also EXTREMELY aware that I can’t change what OS an organization runs. It’s a systemic problem.
Using Linux does not make you safe either. Given that almost every server runs Linux, you can bet good money that most intelligence agencies have a few full time employees adding backdoors to the kernel XZ Utils style, and at least one of them has succeeded.
Become ungovernable.
Good luck with that
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.
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.
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.
i just like linux, I am not cool or edgy using it but its a cool os :(
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.
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 use linux and don’t have family or friends or get any kind of medical care ☺️ checkmate
And most servers do too.
God save ASP and .NET applications
Using Linux in America be like
The failures of the United States healthcare system are compatible with the Unix philosophy due to its emphasis on doing one thing poorly and leaving the rest for the user to figure out. Like Unix tools, each component—insurance, billing, and treatment—functions independently, refusing to communicate effectively while relying on the user to “pipe” themselves between endless calls, paperwork, and escalating bills. Debugging your health, much like debugging code, requires advanced knowledge, infinite patience, and a willingness to accept that nothing will ever be fully resolved.
This very succinctly explains why I, with AuDHD, find it practically impossible to get anything done as I slowly rot from untreated chronic illnesses.
Audhd?
Autism + ADHD
So that’s why they named it Wine.
Most sociable Linux user.
human relationships are antithetical to the unix philosophy
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…
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.
We can’t even get the government to stop using Twitter.
If you believe the duly elected people have less power than a corporation, well, that’s also a “we” problem
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.
My government forces a fingerprint on our id cards. I already lost. I can’t use my fingerprint anywhere for authentication because it’s not mine anymore.
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.
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.
