Free software and cryptography: allies in the prevention of spying on the Internet
Since the revelations in June of confidential documents about the United States PRISM spying program, which allows the NSA (National Security Agency) to directly access the servers of the largest Internet companies (Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo, etc.), many users continue to use the software and services provided by the companies mentioned without taking any measures to prevent their information from being spied on.
But are there alternatives that allow the public to prevent their information and Internet-based communications from being accessed? The answer is definitely yes. People should use free software and should encrypt their information.
Free Software
The first step is to change the software we use in our computers, phones and tablets to Free Software. The Free Software philosophy allows users to "run, copy, distribute, study, change and modify the software." That way you can be certain that the software does what you expect it to do, without any tricks.
After former CIA employee Edward Snowden revealed that Microsoft and Apple are two of the companies working with the NSA, who can be certain that their "Windows" and "OS X" operating systems, don’t have backdoors that allow intelligence agencies to access our computers remotely and browse through all the files we thought were private?
Or in turn, how can the governments of the world be sure that the content of the "confidential" documents written using the Microsoft Office suite are not being accessed without anyone knowing?
Free Software reduces the likelihood of backdoors because the source code is free to anyone interested. Those with the necessary knowledge can analyze how it functions and therefore, detect possible security threats that jeopardize the privacy of users.
With proprietary software, the only ones who have access to the source code are the companies developing the product. And again the question arises: Who guarantees that products such as Windows, OS X, iOS and Office, which are some of the most widely used programs in the world, do not have back doors that allow governments or intelligence agencies to access our information? The only people who know the answer to that are the manufacturers, those same manufacturers who are today working with the NSA so it can spy on users.
The concept of "freedom" when it comes to free software has nothing to do with the price, it refers rather to the freedom that users have over it.
With this in mind, the change to free software is not only a necessary measure to safeguard the privacy of our information, but it is also urgent.
This Spanish-language illustration shows some of the free software options available to replace the proprietary software we use every day.
David Loor is an Ecuadorian software developer and free software advocate.
