Bonum Certa Men Certa

Unlike GAFAM, Free Software Serves You, It Does Not Serve Governments and MElons (Overlapping Forces)

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Feb 08, 2025,
updated Feb 08, 2025

Tired of oligarchy controlling your life through gadgets and "apps"? There's another way....

You uploaded my swimming suit photos to iCloud??? Apple lies to you

MY wife tells me "it's not just Apple." She never bought or used any Apple products/services and she only uses Free software, which perhaps make her a "purist" - actually a very practical choice, a pragmatic approach that does not interfere with life and work.

PRESS RELEASE: United Kingdom goes after Apple’s encrypted data

For those who got totally distracted by DOGE MElon, Apple is colluding with our government [1-5] that we voted for, but we're not too worried yet. Those who don't rely on GAFAM (or Apple or Amazon, the As in GAFAM) aren't impacted, at least not yet. Unless the government here bans Free software, it cannot mess around with our computers, which now have a combined uptime of about 1,200 days (wife last rebooted her laptop 348 days ago), many physical backups (no Clown Computing, thank you), and use encryption for E-mail (end-to-end, not the fake type).

As time goes by and society gets "harder to control" (we know who wants to control everything in society; it's about oppression and suppression, it's not about safety or societal security or order or stability) because more families feel anguish/desperation, the imperative to embrace Software Freedom ought to become clearer. At the same time, those who speak about it, e.g. Dr. Stallman, will be marginalised and their message censored. Daniel Pocock called it "social engineering" last year. He travelled all the way to the US to talk about it. Pocock is an expert in communication and encryption, with a focus on Free software facilities that help accomplish that.

"They'll do whatever any government asks them to, always," Ryan said about Apple. "Taking a stand means losing money. The only way to be protected is assume that anyone could be listening in."

The other way is to use secure software, i.e. not what the corrupted EFF recommends (the new and corrupted EFF went out of its way to attack or to broadly FUD E-mail encryption while promoting stuff like Facebook because today's EFF cannot distinguish between E-mail and Web pages).

Some people who read the news below will get angry at Apple and move to some other letter in "the GAFAM". That's what false choices look like. The real choice is to name, recognise, and then abandon proprietary software as a whole. In the case of GAFAM, all "the letters" are working for the convicted felon, accused of sexually assaulting about 30 women (those are the ones who dare speak out). Rich and corrupt people only demand privacy for themselves.

  1. PRESS RELEASE: United Kingdom goes after Apple’s encrypted data | Privacy International

    • Privacy International is alarmed that the United Kingdom have used an unfettered power that undermines every Apple users’ privacy and security globally.

    • This latest overreach threatens everyone’s data and the security of the Internet as a whole, not just Apple’s customers.

  2. The UK's Demands for Apple to Break Encryption Is an Emergency for Us All

    As reported, the British government’s undisclosed order was issued last month, and requires the capability to view all encrypted material in iCloud. The core target is Apple’s Advanced Data Protection, which is an optional feature that turns on end-to-end encryption for backups and other data stored in iCloud, making it so that even Apple cannot access that information. For a long time, iCloud backups were a loophole for law enforcement to gain access to data otherwise not available to them on iPhones with device encryption enabled. That loophole still exists for anyone who doesn’t opt in to using Advanced Data Protection. If Apple does comply, users should consider disabling iCloud backups entirely. Perhaps most concerning, the U.K. is apparently seeking a backdoor into users’ data regardless of where they are or what citizenship they have.

  3. U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts

    Security officials in the United Kingdom have demanded that Apple create a back door allowing them to retrieve all the content any Apple user worldwide has uploaded to the cloud, people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post.

  4. UK Orders Apple To Break Encryption Worldwide While World Is Distracted

    This comes after years of the UK government’s steadily mounting assault on encryption, from the Investigatory Powers Act to the Online Safety Act. While officials repeatedly insisted they weren’t trying to break encryption entirely, those of us following closely saw this coming. Apple even warned it might have to exit the UK market if pushed too far.

  5. UK Home Office stays shtum on alleged Apple backdoor order

    Such a mechanism would enable the government to independently access and read encrypted data, both within the UK and potentially for users worldwide.

Bill Gates advocates for stopping end-to-end encryption (to tackle 'misinformation')

Other Recent Techrights' Posts

Cannot Speak About IBM Wrongdoing or Jobs Being Sent Overseas (Lower Salaries)
IBM has long attacked the media, the whistleblowers, and even online forums
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: The CIA-Funded Centre-Left in Portugal
In the political turmoil which followed the fall of the old regime, the communists seemed to be acquiring a dominant position and there was a very real risk that Portugal could end up aligned with the Eastern Bloc if they were not stopped
Yesterday Afternoon The Register MS Published a Fake Article That Says "AI" 31 Times Because It Got Paid to Do This
What will happen when all those loans for slop (Ponzi scheme) stop and companies' marketing budgets - which include media bribes for hype campaigns - are no more?
Extraordinary General Meeting of Staff Union of the European Patent Office Ahead of Intensifying Strikes
We will, in the meantime, run a series about EPO corruption, which is now connected to corruption in Portugal and to corruption inside the EU
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: The Brotherhood of São Bento
The Palácio São Bento – or São Bento Palace – is the seat of the Portuguese National Assembly in Lisbon
 
Links 09/06/2026: "Smartphones Broke Dating" and "EU Open Source Strategy"
Links for the day
This Coming Friday
Richard Stallman (RMS)
Several Slopfarms That Target "Linux" Seem to Have Died
Or perished severely
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 08, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, June 08, 2026
Gemini Links 09/06/2026: Tanana River, Cassette Beasts, and Emacs
Links for the day
IBM's Quantum Bubble Already Deflating
Shares down over $55 in a few days
SLAPP Censorship - Part 101 Out of 200: Women Come to Realise They Don't Wish to Participate in Attacking Vulnerable Women
It relates to another topic that we shall be covering in the coming weeks
Links 08/06/2026: Proprietary Loaded With Security Holes, Armenia Defies Russia
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/06/2026: NetHack 5.0.0 and Slop as Cannibalism
Links for the day
Links 08/06/2026: "Rising Emissions, Depleting Water" Due to the Pyramid Scheme of Slop; "Canada Needs to Rebuild Public Telecoms"
Links for the day
Brett Wilson LLP Reported to Police for Trying to Throw Large Parcel Into Our Home
This morning the campaign of intimidation...
GAFAM Bots Are Not "Good Bots"
There's nothing "Good" about Google
Links 08/06/2026: Criticism of Microsoft Trying to Criminalise Pointing Out Bug Doors, TikTok Now "Climate-Denying Social Media App"
Links for the day
Slop Has no ROI, an Economy Built on False Assumptions of Slop is Doomed
we're all going to suffer from this Ponzi scheme
The Cyber Show Has "Exciting Guests Coming" and a Gemini Capsule
"Site development is ongoing but now settling into a more stable form"
GNU/Linux Measured at 10% in Liechtenstein This Month
it seems like statCounter wrongly classified some GNU/Linux clients as Mac clients and is now issuing a correction
Communicating With Freedom - Part III - Quibble Envisioned as a New and Easily Accessible Communications Platform Based on LibreJS
the FSF really needs to become more active if not proactive in promoting those sorts of things
Clownflare Says Majority of Web Traffic is Now Bots, But the Net is Another Story
Bots are to Clownflare what lawsuits are to lawyers
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, June 07, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, June 07, 2026
The Strikes at the European Patent Office Planned to Carry on for the Entire Year, Maybe Future Years as Well
There's a cautionary tale somewhere
Number of Patent Grants Has Plunged 23% Amid Strikes at the European Patent Office, Today There Are More Strikes (Strike Participation at Over 3,000, More Than Doubled Since Winter)
There is a growing crisis at the European Patent Office
E.E.E. Still Ongoing, the War on Copyleft/GPL Enables That
It also imperils security.
Gemini Links 07/06/2026: Lynx in the 'Modern' Web and 'Overcooked' (Plagiarised by LLM) Code
Links for the day
Links 07/06/2026: Java Needs Seawall, Egypt Blasted for Arbitrary Detention of Activists
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 100 Out of 200: Interlude and Outline of the First Half, 3+ Months That Got Us Death Threats Connected to Brett Wilson LLP (and Cyber Attacks That Are Difficult to Attribute)
This week we plan to have a good time
Banning Things Versus Teaching People the Reason/s to Shun/Boycott Those Things
Prohibition has its limits
Links 07/06/2026: NASA's Mars Maven Declared Dead, Telegram Founder Pavel Durov Bemoans Russia's Crackdown
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, June 06, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, June 06, 2026
Gemini Links 07/06/2026: How to Train Your Dragon (2010) and "Six Days of Play"
Links for the day