How to Challenge Big Tech with Privacy-First Alternatives
Purism
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The market dominance of Big Tech companies like Apple, Google, and Facebook has shed ample light on how they (mis) handle consumer data. They own tons of personally identifiable information, which may be sold to third-parties at their discretion. Their products and services are designed-to-snoop on their users. It has taken them several decades to create ecosystems that “lock-in” users to their hardware, app subscriptions and compel users to hit “Accept All” on their privacy demands. These empires are built on favoring their own apps above the security, privacy and freedom of their users. Why not provide viable alternatives that respect users?
“To break up the dominance of big tech companies, we have to give control to individuals to choose from privacy-first options.” says Todd Weaver, Founder and CEO of Purism.
People, Purpose and Profit
People come first, and their rights are important to us. We exist and have grown because of the relentless support from our employees, supporters and backers. Human rights are important to us. This is why we created the Digital Bill of Rights. We need more alternatives that respect your fundamental rights in this digital age.
For Purism, doing good is part of the vision, and not an after thought. We are a Social Purpose Corporation in the United States of America, which means that we put your digital rights at the forefront of design, manufacturing and everything else we do.
Another area, where we offer a clear differentiator: our products are built to last. Big tech companies incentivize users to replace their old devices with a new ones. As a Social Purpose Corporation one of the areas we work toward is longevity of product along with right to repair, this allows us to be a unique global manufacturer of digitally-responsible electronic products.
Convergence of Beautiful Freedom
Purism is not only manufacturing phones. Our teams are building an entire ecosystem that protects user privacy. It started from products, and now, launching services and investing in app-ecosystem that is secure, and respects your freedom and privacy.
Products: Purism launched its first crowdfunding campaign for 15-inch Librem laptop with a $250,000 funding goal in 2014. It exceeded that goal and it meant that there was appetite for more products in the market. “We started with a vision to build hardware that respected a users’ essential freedoms and privacy” says Weaver. Then came the Librem 13 laptop. Currently, Librem 5 phone, Librem Mini, and Librem 14 are being shipped to consumers around the world.
Librem 5 USA smart phone, is Purism’s long-term effort towards a more transparent and secure supply chain. Available to be shipped around the world, for this phone, Purism sources most components from within the USA. “Our customers tell us they are concerned about attacks both in the hardware and software supply chain. The Librem 5 USA provides them with answers to resolve their hardware security concerns,” says President of Purism, Kyle Rankin.
Services: Most recently, Purism launched privacy-first cellular phone plans: Librem AweSIM, SIMple Plus and SIMple, for those in the United States of America. The cellular plans work for Librem 5 and other unlocked GSM phones with a SIM card.
For the future, we are investing in building and growing freedom-respecting software. And supporting it for good.
We released the convergence-friendly, PureOS, that powers the Librem phone and laptop. So it is a desktop OS and shrinks it down to your pocket with a mobile-phone (or vice-versa). And you don’t have to trust our word that PureOS respects and protects you—it is independently verifiable by security experts and software developers around the world.
Last but not the least, we are constantly upstreaming our code improvements for the greater good. Over the past four years the Librem 5 software team has worked on dozens of upstream GNOME modules, resulting in many cool new features and improvements for people using GNOME across all devices.
Widening Our Outreach
Over the last 8 years of our existence, we have seen our appeal grow from software developers and core Linux users to several segments around the world. You could be:
Parents looking for a privacy-oriented device for their child can invest in laptops and smart phones that can inculcate habits to stay safe online and benefit from free-software, that comes pre-installed with it. If you need a safe phone plan, do consider ordering the phone with our privacy-oriented cellular plans.
C-suite executives who travel frequently need to carry secure laptop or a phone while traveling. Why expose all of your sensitive data if you are always on, and always on the go?
Enterprise clients who need to know where software comes from and can audit it independently for backdoors or security bugs. Purism leads in its secure software supply chain with auditable firmware, software, and reproducible builds.
Another benefit for enterprises in addition to the auditability of our software is the fact that they can also modify all the software in our stack to suit their needs. Any other GNU/Linux based operating systems just work on our Librem devices including but not limited to: Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, CentOS, SUSE, and RedHat Enterprise. This is because Purism and PureOS utilize the most strict security and mainline policy offering hardware that will last for many years with full software support.
We are a drop in replacement for other Linux laptops, already in use across your small, medium or large organization.
Tech Tinkerers: If you are the DIY kind to repair, customize or upgrade your own laptops and phones, you will love our products, built with modular design. Check out some interesting how-tos for our Librem devices.
Special Security Requirements: If you have unique security needs, we also offer support to customize your laptop or phone when you order based on your security profile. We customize each anti-interdiction order based on the particular threats a customer faces. Check Kyle Rankin’s guide for more on Anti-Interdiction services.
Wrapping Up
Privacy and security features are not default for most products and services delivered by Big Tech companies. Consumers have to be diligent in choosing options and making trade-offs where Big Tech companies cause more harm than good. It’s great that they have more choices than ever to choose secure options that are on their side. Make a start by trying a device. Purism is committed to your privacy, freedom and security.
Purism Products and Availability Chart
| Model | Status | Lead Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Librem Key (Made in USA) | In Stock ($59+) | 10 business days | |
 | Librem 5 | In Stock ($699+) 3GB/32GB | 10 business days | |
| Librem 5 COMSEC Bundle | In Stock ($1299+) Qty 2; 3GB/32GB | 10 business days | |
| Liberty Phone (Made in USA Electronics) | Backorder ($1,999+) 4GB/128GB | Estimated fulfillment February | |
| Librem 5 + SIMple (3 GB Data) | In Stock ($99/mo) | 10 business days | |
| Librem 5 + SIMple Plus (5 GB Data) | In Stock ($129/mo) | 10 business days | |
| Librem 5 + AweSIM (Unlimited Data) | In Stock ($169/mo) | 10 business days | |
 | Librem 11 | In Stock ($999+) 8GB/1TB | 10 business days | |
 | Librem 14 | Backorder ($1,370+) | Estimated fulfillment December | |
 | Librem Mini | Backorder ($799+) | 10 business days | |
 | Librem Server | In Stock ($2,999+) | 45 business days |
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