Richard Stallman

[paserbyp]

Richard Stallman, founder of the free software movement, said Windows and OS X are malware, claimed Amazon's Kindle has an Orwellian back door, and said that only an idiot would trust the Internet of Things.

"Malware is the name for a program designed to mistreat its users," Stallman wrote in The Guardian. Stallman, who believes iPhones and Androids are Big Brother tracking devices, previously said smartphones are "Stalin's dream" and Facebook is a "monstrous surveillance engine." This time he kicked Amazon's Kindle, writing, "Amazon's Kindle e-reader reports what page of what book is being read, plus all notes and underlining the user enters; it shackles the user against sharing or even freely giving away or lending the book, and has an Orwellian back door for erasing books."

You can also be "shackled" by apps for streaming services, which don't allow users to save a copy of the data received and force users to "identify themselves so their viewing and listening habits can be tracked."

Modern cars can't be trusted either, due to their proprietary software that prevents "car owners from fixing their cars." Stallman added, "If the car itself does not report everywhere you drive, an insurance company may charge you extra to go without a separate tracker. Meanwhile, some GPS navigators save up where you have gone in order to report back when connected to update the maps."

Then there's the Internet of Things. Both smart TVs and the Internet-connected Hello Barbie doll "transmit conversations remotely."

But don't despair, Stallman says, as resistance is not futile and then he added, "we can resist:

Individually, by rejecting proprietary software and web services that snoop or track.

Collectively, by organizing to develop free/libre replacement systems and web services that don't track who uses them.

Democratically, by legislation to criminalize various sorts of malware practices. This presupposes democracy, and democracy requires defeating treaties such as the TPP and TTIP that give companies the power to suppress democracy."