<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" --> <!-- Parent-Version:1.771.96 --> <!-- This page is derived from /server/standards/boilerplate.html --> <!--#set var="TAGS" value="essays aboutfs principles" --> <!--#set var="DISABLE_TOP_ADDENDUM" value="yes" --> <title>Your Freedom Needs Free Software - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title> <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/your-freedom-needs-free-software.translist" --> <!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" --> <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/ph-breadcrumb.html" --> <!--GNUN: OUT-OF-DATE NOTICE--> <!--#include virtual="/server/top-addendum.html" --> <div class="article reduced-width"> <h2>Your Freedom Needs Free Software</h2> <address class="byline">by Richard Stallman</address> <div class="introduction"> <p>Many of us know that governments can threaten the human rights of software users through censorship and surveillance of the Internet. Many do not realize that the software they run on their home or work computers can be an even worse threat. Thinking of software as‘just“just atool’,tool,” they suppose that it obeys them, when in fact it often obeys others instead.</p> </div> <p>The software running in most computers is <ahref="/philosophy/categories.html#ProprietarySoftware">non-free,href="/philosophy/categories.html#ProprietarySoftware">nonfree, proprietary software</a>: controlled by software companies, not by its users. Users can't check what these programs do, nor prevent them from doing what they don't want. Most people accept this because they have seen no other way, but it is simply wrong to give developers power over the users' computer.</p> <p>This unjust power, as usual, tempts its wielders to further misdeeds. If a computer talks to a network, and you don't control the software in it, it can easily spy on you. Microsoft Windows spies on users; for instance, it reports what words a user searches for in her own files, and what other programs are installed. RealPlayer spies too; it reports what the user plays. Cell phones are full ofnon-freenonfree software, which spies. Cell phones send out localizing signals even when‘off’,“off,” many can send out your precise GPS location whether you wish or not, and some models can be switched on remotely as listening devices. Users can't fix these malicious features because they don't have control.</p> <p>Some proprietary software is <a href="/proprietary/proprietary.html"> designed to restrict and attack itsusers.users</a>. <ahref="http://badvista.org/">Windowshref="https://badvista.fsf.org/">Windows Vista</a>iswas a big advance in this field; the reason itrequiresrequired replacement of old hardware is that the new modelsarewere designed to support unbreakable restrictions. Microsoft thusrequiresrequired users to pay for shiny new shackles.It isVista was also designed to permit forced updating by corporate authority. Hence the <ahref="http://badvista.org/">BadVista.org</a>href="https://badvista.fsf.org/">Bad Vista</a> campaign, whichurgesurged Windows users not to‘upgrade’“upgrade” to Vista.(For the equally malicious Windows 7 andFor later Windows8,versions, which are <a href="/proprietary/malware-microsoft.html">even more malicious</a>, we now have <ahref="http://windows7sins.org/">Windows7Sins.org</a> and <a href="http://upgradefromwindows8.org/">UpgradeFromWindows8.org</a>.) Mac OShref="https://www.fsf.org/windows">Upgrade from Windows</a>. Mac OS also contains features designed torestrict<a href="/proprietary/malware-apple.html">restrict itsusers.</p>users</a>.</p> <p>Microsoft has installed back doors for the US government's use in the past (<ahref="http://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/5/5263/1.html">reportedhref="https://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/5/5263/1.html">reported on heise.de</a>). We cannot check whether they have successors today. Other proprietary programs may or may not have back doors, but since we cannot check them, we cannot trust them.</p> <p>The only way to assure that your software is working for you is to insist onFree/Librefree/libre software. This means users get the source code, are free to study and change it, and are free to redistribute it with or without changes. The <a href="/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html">GNU/Linux system</a>, developed <ahref="/gnu/">specificallyhref="/gnu/gnu.html">specifically for users' freedom</a>, includes office applications, multimedia, games, and everything you really need to run a computer. See our list of <ahref="http://www.gnewsense.org/">gNewSense.org</a> for a <a href="/distros">totally Free/Libre versionhref="/distros/distros.html">totally free/libre versions of GNU/Linux</a>.</p> <p>A special problem occurs when activists for social change use proprietary software, because its developers, who control it, may be companies they wish to protest—or that work hand in glove with the states whose policies they oppose. Control of our software by a proprietary software company, whether it be Microsoft, Apple, Adobe or Skype, means control of what we can say, and to whom. This threatens our freedom in all areas of life.</p> <p>There is also danger in using a company's server to do your word processing or email—and not just if you are in China, as US lawyer Michael Springmann discovered. In 2003, AOL not only handed over to the police his confidential discussions with clients, it also made his email and his address list disappear, and didn't admit this was intentional until one of its staff made a slip. Springmann gave up on getting his data back.</p> <p>The US is not the only state that doesn't respect human rights, so keep your data on your own computer, and your backups under your own custody—and run your computer withFree/Librefree/libre software.</p> </div> </div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above --> <!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" --> <divid="footer">id="footer" role="contentinfo"> <div class="unprintable"> <p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to <a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> the FSF. Broken links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent to <a href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p> <p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph, replace it with the translation of these two: We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection. Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org"> <web-translators@gnu.org></a>.</p> <p>For information on coordinating andsubmittingcontributing translations of our web pages, see <a href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations README</a>. --> Please see the <a href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations README</a> for information on coordinating andsubmittingcontributing translations of this article.</p> </div> <!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to files generated as part of manuals) on the GNU web server should be under CC BY-ND3.0 US.4.0. Please do NOT change or remove this without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first. Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the document. For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the document was modified, or published. If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too. Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system). There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. --> <p>Copyright ©20072007, 2021 Richard Stallman</p> <p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license"href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/us/">Creativehref="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative CommonsAttribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesAttribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p> <!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" --> <p class="unprintable">Updated: <!-- timestamp start --> $Date: 2021/09/22 08:03:43 $ <!-- timestamp end --> </p> </div></div></div><!-- for class="inner", starts in the banner include --> </body> </html>