According to Richard Stallman, godfather of the free software movement, Facebook is a "monstrous surveillance engine," tech companies working for patent reform aren't going nearly far enough, and parents must lobby their children's schools to keep data private and provide free software alternatives.
The developers of Replicant, a mobile OS based on Android, claim to have found a backdoor vulnerability in a software component shipped with some Samsung Galaxy devices that potentially provides remote access to users' private files through the device modem.
Germany's new coalition government listed open source software among its IT policy priorities, and said it will take steps to protect its citizens against espionage threats from the NSA and other foreign intelligence agencies.
The Free Software Foundation on Thursday attacked Microsoft for "meaningless" public statements on privacy and security, claiming that Windows is "fundamentally insecure."
It was 30 years ago today -- which is to say Sept. 27, 1983 -- that the seeds were planted for both Linux and the open source software movement, though neither is called that name by the man who help set both of them into motion, the irascible Richard Stallman.
The Netflix-backed Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) proposal, and recent revelations that requirements for DRM in HTML5 are confidential, have generated furor among advocates of the Open Web. Let's cut through the hyperbole.