Poll of the Day > The responsible software checklist

(+) Yeah! (+)

There are a lot of open source alternatives to software that solve basically every real problem we have with corporate software. This ranges from eliminating data tracking to getting rid of forced updates. They usually come with serious drawbacks, including leaving a platform's convenient ecosystem, IP bans, to compatibility issues. It's like the veganism of software. I use none of it. Regardless, have you tried any of these?

Linux: Open source everything, no tracking built-in, no phoning home, more secure
Firefox: Open source?
Tor: Impossible-ish to track
Tails: Really impossible to track
VPN: Harder to track
Mastadon: Bypasses all algorithms meant to keep you attentive
Custom android firmware: Removes all tracking from your phone

I've used all of the above and ended up crawling back to my favorite corpo since they usually make life much harder with no immediate payoff. I don't actually care if my data is being sold to advertisers.

I think if people want these things to be adopted we need a real push by prominent figures and internet celebrities, who will need to come up with a plan, a group, a strike/union/boycott something. Actually incentivising people to switch with something. It could be a twitch chat client that works exclusively on linux, things like that.

This is a subject that triggers the hell out of me because I work in Cybersecurity.

Yellow posted...

Linux: Open source everything, no tracking built-in, no phoning home, more secure

Not entirely true. Some software does phone home but it's largely discouraged. Projects like audacitiy have put telemetry in their software in recent years.

Yellow posted...

Firefox: Open source?

Has telemetry built in (and enabled by default) that you can disable.

Yellow posted...

Tor: Impossible-ish to track

Also a known honeypot.

Yellow posted...

Tails: Really impossible to track

I have no opinions.

Yellow posted...

VPN: Harder to track

Consumer VPNs are by definition man in the middle attacks and consumer VPN companies are likely collecting and selling your data.

Yellow posted...

Mastadon: Bypasses all algorithms meant to keep you attentive

This is a joke right?

Yellow posted...

Custom android firmware: Removes all tracking from your phone

Oh boy, I can't wait to see a normal person screw up their vendor locked phone trying to put Calyx on it.

Yellow posted... I think if people want these things to be adopted

They don't. Hard enough to get people to understand that your telco provider has (and records) your exact location at all times regardless of your phone or if your location service are enabled and have had this power for almost 20 years. Also this data is sold to third parties. Also your government has the power to record all traffic that you send online and may have the ability to decrypt said traffic (although I can't confirm the last part of this, it's only things I have heard from a big company in this space).

I think the idea that tor is a honeypot is not really supported. It was released by the US government a while ago, and it receives donations from the government, and exit nodes can snoop. But the government cannot tell what you are doing when you use it, and all cases where someone is caught involve them screwing something else up/using it improperly.

Silk road admin was caught because he asked a question on StackOverflow on how to set up the exact website he created. A student who called in a bomb threat was caught because they were the only ones using Tor on their school network at the exact time (and they confessed immediately). Many examples like that.

You are also unfairly harsh on VPNs for no reason. With a VPN you are basically choosing which ISP you want handling your data. A reputable one in a country with laws protecting it, and an incentive to not sell your data is better than Comcast who openly admits to selling your data.

True that custom Android OS's are a total joke and I would not recommend them. I imagine 20% of people trying to use them end up bricking their phones. And the end result is an OS that can barely do anything.

I am not overly harsh on VPNs when their main selling point is to watch "overseas Netflix".

Judgmenl posted...

I am not overly harsh on VPNs when their main selling point is to watch "overseas Netflix".

It's a very inefficient use of a VPN tbh, piping 20/MBps just to get around a region lock. They need to come up with selling points other than "you'll feel better because Comcast won't sell your data, only $100/year"

"But we'll sell your data instead".

Judgmenl posted...

"But we'll sell your data instead".

Why would they sell my data when they're the most reputable VPN around and I personally hand them $100 to not do that?

That would destroy their company for some side-profit. Literally all they have to do is sit down, re-route traffic, rake in money, and not do that.

People wanna be tracked, followed, public, etc. That's the issue and problem of it.
we should instead keep making it more clear what's being tracked and why. Then maybe we can work on treating that data fairly by compensating users.
If people knew what they were sharing and how it was used, maybe they'd care more, but again, people want to be seen at any cost.

I know Firefox has some shady crap going on.

Developers of Audacity have responded by saying it's to check for updates.
https://www.reddit.com/r/audacity/comments/s7liog/does_audacity_still_have_telemetry/

I'm mostly ignorant of mastadon. The point of that site is mostly just that there's no CEO or shareholders and it's not for profit than anything else. It could use some better attention algos tbh.

Basically how can you have a trustworthy software in a system that is legally required to make as much money as possible? To not sell user data could literally open you up to a lawsuit from your shareholders if they think it's incompetent.

That's why every (huge) corpo software is flaming dogshit.

Yellow posted...

Linux

Yeah, that's been my main operating system for the past year or so.

EclairReturns posted...

Yeah, that's been my main operating system for the past year or so.

It's not bad tbh. You can definitely make it work.

I missed Visual Studio too much. Literally the only thing I missed.

pedro45 posted...

People wanna be tracked, followed, public, etc.

The need to be observed and understood was once satisfied by God. Now we can implement the same functionality with data-mining algorithms.

The human organism always worships. First it was the gods, then it was fame (the observation and judgment of others), next it will be the self-aware systems you have built to realize truly omnipresent observation and judgment.

The individual desires judgment. Without that desire, the cohesion of groups is impossible, and so is civilization.

The human being created civilization not because of a willingness but because of a need to be assimilated into higher orders of structure and meaning.

God was a dream of good government.

You will soon have your God, and you will make it with your own hands.

Having worked on software that is actually used by the government to track people, most of the stuff people complain about that is tracking you is very minor compared to the stuff that can actually damage you. All your social media information, what sites you go to, etc. don't matter much. It is basically used for targeted advertising and software improvements. Want to know why Microsoft switched from IE to Edge? They determined through all that stuff they are tracking that most people prefer Chrome, so they made a Chromium browser and ditched their outdated standard.

You are honestly doing more damage to yourself by posting your age and birthday online then letting your ISP find out what kind of porn you are into.

I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're refering to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.
Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called Linux, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.
There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called Linux distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux!

Dikitain posted...

They determined through all that stuff they are tracking that most people prefer Chrome,

Probably just because it is the most in your face of the alternatives.

Nichtcrawler-X posted...

Probably just because it is the most in your face of the alternatives.

Essentially. It used to be Firefox, I remember very clearly when it was Firefox (I was in college at the time). Everybody forgets that when Chrome came out it completely changed the way we used a web browser and therefore became #1. After Chrome, everyone stopped using browsers that looked like Netscape clones and now all browsers look like Chrome clones.

I still like Firefox, but for the most part I just use Chrome or Edge.

Dikitain posted...

Everybody forgets that when Chrome came out it completely changed the way we used a web browser and therefore became #1.

Never liked Chrome, so I have no idea. I just have an extensive style sheet on my Firefox to keep the layout the way I prefer it.

Dikitain posted...

Having worked on software that is actually used by the government to track people, most of the stuff people complain about that is tracking you is very minor compared to the stuff that can actually damage you. All your social media information, what sites you go to, etc. don't matter much. It is basically used for targeted advertising and software improvements. Want to know why Microsoft switched from IE to Edge? They determined through all that stuff they are tracking that most people prefer Chrome, so they made a Chromium browser and ditched their outdated standard.

You are honestly doing more damage to yourself by posting your age and birthday online then letting your ISP find out what kind of porn you are into.

Better written than my multi-post ramble and expresses my beliefs better.