We were busy last week!

In short:
- Our DNS entries were finally transferred to us as a legal entity: f-droid.org/2024/09/30/dns-sec
- This week in #FDroid (TWIF) was published again with news about the next F-Droid client update with fixes for TetheredNet and many app news: f-droid.org/2024/10/03/twif.ht
- And the website is now available in Czech: f-droid.org/cs/2024/10/04/czec

All the details are in the linked blog posts, so please feel free to read them ;)

#Bundestrojaner – Was ist das eigentlich? Auch im aktuellen Wahlkampf ruft die @volkspartei wieder lautstark nach der Überwachung verschlüsselter Kommunikation.

🛑 Was daran so gefährlich ist:

Given my work on , circumvention, , etc. this case is giving me pause. I have lots of questions, but no clear answers yet. Are there parallels to the DoH case here? Is making the internet more private contributing to centralization of power? e.g. billionaires like Musk can broadcast over the whole internet whatever they want, and governments have no power to stop it. The 99% do have to follow our govs.

In the end, it was a series of six meetings, each lasting two hours, with 75 pages of quite technical background material. We really need more public interest involvement in these kinds of things, but it is no surprise that few people want to do this kind of thing in their spare time. I always thought I'd contribute code, I'm still surprised to be invited to these things. It is clear that voices carry a lot more weight in this setting. How can we get more people involved?

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There were some other key people there too on their own time, I'd like to thank them for their work too! And some people there for their job were also giving valuable input. (I can't mention who anyone is because of the NDA).

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On my own time, I have to read a ~50 page document produced for the in order to effectively participate in a two hour meeting where is pitted against on the and its requirements around installing and allowing other options.
Its all NDA'ed so I can't ask for help.
This game is really rigged for the megacorps. Wish me luck! Here's to fighting the good fight!

More fun with meetings! This time I'm in some meetings organized by the European Commission, run by a super expensive, multi-national consultancy. We are in with well paid representatives of , some academics, and a couple public interest techies like me. Volunteers like me are again driving the key points that will make or break the . I applied to to fund our work, but was rejected. How can we in the get more people paid to represent users?

Nothing like a massive flowing river in the middle of a city to show us who is boss:

"#FreeSoftware compete with big tech (gatekeepers) not in scale but in principle by providing to end-users curated solutions that respect their rights. #DMA is important for non-profit as well"
@fsfe at the Digital Markets Conference

#SoftwareFreedom

European Competition Network's conference summarized how our digital infrastructure is working, e.g.

"The narrative of excuse, which is so often used by big tech players, is a self-serving story created by the incumbents who have the ability to solve incredibly complicated technical problems. Security solutions are not intractable and do not prevent compliance. Once security is taken care of, consumers obviously like choice"

acm.nl/en/publications/ecn-dig

The CIA has a long track record, documented from their own archives and elsewhere, of breaking just laws about torture, kidnapping, murder, due process, etc. On top of that, they have built a system to ensure they rarely have to face the consequences. 4/4

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113 makes a very dangerous conclusion that sometimes governments need to break the law. In many countries, the law is the law, and there are no exceptions. I'm fortunate to live in one: Austria. The US Constitution does not say that the government can break the law for security reasons. The US executive branch decided that, and the checks and balances are failing. The right standard comes from MLK Jr: people should break unjust law, but accept the consequences. 3/

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The has a well documented, decades-long history of using coercion and even murder, from Abu Ghraib to the Korean War. If you want extensive detail, see the National Security Archive. Or a great book on the topic is Killing Hope, by William Blum. The CIA even hosts a free PDF of the book, if you trust downloads from them ;-) cia.gov/library/abbottabad-com 2/

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The is doing more PR these days, like putting up agents for interviews on popular podcasts where the interviewer won't contradict their or even outright lies, like "the CIA does not spy on Americans". I heard a clear example of this on episode 116 Mad Dog, where the agent said the CIA doesn't typically use coercion. The key spin word is "typically". Most agents are paper pushers, so they aren't torturing, but the CIA does regularly and frequently torture people 1/

We have a new blog post about the Mobifree project and our role in it.

In short, it's a human-centered, ethical alternative, that champions privacy over profit and believes in collaboration, sustainability and inclusiveness.

f-droid.org/2024/05/24/mobifre

#FDroid #mobifree

Friendly reminder if you're an open source developer in the mobile ecosystem:

You still have time until 1st of June to apply for a #mobifree grant.

nlnet.nl/mobifree/

Looks like will pass a key point in its war on : its own response will kill more of their own people than the original attack. This already happened long ago for , more were killed in this war than all since 1948. The lost more of its own people in the wars of and than in the Sept 11th attacks. These facts clearly demonstrate who gains from these kinds of wars. The leaders who drive them do so to stay in power, not to serve their people interests.

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