Nasty Software

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David Hamner

Latest posts by David Hamner (see all)

• Easy App Development: Text Forwarding - January 22, 2024
• Retain Your Control and Customize Everything with Modular Software - January 22, 2024
• Nasty Software - December 18, 2023

Phones aren’t built to protect the end user, though it might they should be because they are part of everyday life. Most modern phones are actually built with the idea of exploiting the end user by analyzing and categorizing you and then selling who you are to others. This is called surveillance capitalism. It’s where you personally are analyzed, and then your analysis is used by the companies gathering the data or is sold on the open market. This leaves some of your most private data in the hands of vendors, advertisers, governments, and, well, anyone who gathers or buys your data.

Your Private Bits

Purism does not buy, sell, nor gather personal identifying information when using any of our products. Big Tech companies collect items such as: Where you go, what you buy, name, address, apps you use, contacts, political points of view, age, sex, race, skills, education, interests, things you hate, pregnancy status, where you grew up, religion, websites, search results, dwell time, just to name a few.

Anonymized data

Many data-collecting apps try to make you feel safe by telling you your data will be anonymized before it’s sold. Anonymized data means names, addresses, and telephone numbers are not tracked. But often, what is tracked is where and when a particular device uses a data-collecting app. These location logs let you build up profiles on where a device goes and how often it’s used. Home addresses, places of work, and even restaurants become data points to de-anonymize you from the crowd.

As an example, a group of Colorado Catholics spent millions of dollars to buy mobile anonymized app tracking data that they used to identify priests who used gay dating and hookup apps.

Behavior Manipulation

Games like Pokemon Go and Ingress use digital assets tied to physical locations. Users think it’s just a fun game getting you to play outside. But by placing in-game portals or Pokestops where you want to influence players to go and spend money, the hidden game is unknowingly getting users to travel to paid locations. For the app makers, the real game is selling where you visit (Called footfall). This goes far beyond selling location data and shows the types of goals and shady morals app makers have on Apple and Android devices. It’s not enough to collect data; they want to influence your behavior.

AI

I wonder if future generations will study us. Not because we are the most interesting but because future data laws will hopefully be written to protect people, and we are the generations with our pants down. People can train AI to output all sorts of digital content. Developers, authors, musicians, and even the latest influencer leave an almost entirely digital mark on the world. We should be thoughtful of what data we allow to be analyzed and what should die with us. AI will be excellent at duplicating, analyzing, and manipulating what we leave unprotected.

Summary

Your data is precious. Even the small facts about ourselves can be helpful in identifying your mark on anonymized data. Don’t let your digital soul be sold out from under you in some unread User Agreement. All our Purism devices protect end users from data collection by default.

Purism Products and Availability Chart

	Model	Status	Lead Time
	Librem Key (Made in USA)	In Stock ($59+)	10 business days	Learn More Buy Now
	Librem 5	In Stock ($699+) 3GB/32GB	10 business days	Learn More Buy Now
	Librem 5 COMSEC Bundle	In Stock ($1299+) Qty 2; 3GB/32GB	10 business days	Learn More Buy Now
	Liberty Phone (Made in USA Electronics)	Backorder ($1,999+) 4GB/128GB	Estimated fulfillment early November	Learn More Buy Now
	Librem 5 + SIMple (3 GB Data)	In Stock ($99/mo)	10 business days	Learn More Buy Now
	Librem 5 + SIMple Plus (5 GB Data)	In Stock ($129/mo)	10 business days	Learn More Buy Now
	Librem 5 + AweSIM (Unlimited Data)	In Stock ($169/mo)	10 business days	Learn More Buy Now
	Librem 11	In Stock ($999+) 8GB/1TB	10 business days	Learn More Buy Now
	Librem 14	Backorder ($1,370+)	Estimated fulfillment date pending	Learn More Buy Now
	Librem Mini	Backorder ($799+)	Estimated fulfillment November	Learn More Buy Now
	Librem Server	In Stock ($2,999+)	45 business days	Learn More Buy Now