Reasons not to use Intel
Don't use Intel processors newer than Core2, because they have the "management engine" back door.
Recent AMD processors have a similar problem, but we do not yet have an article about it.
Nope, no Intel chip recall after Spectre and Meltdown, CEO says
CEO Brian Krzanich says the new security vulnerabilities may be deep but they're also being fixed with software updates.
https ://www.cnet.com/news/meltdown-spectre-intel-ceo-no-recall-chip-processor/
Surveillance
To identify yourself to a Google service is a grave error.
Google "santizes" it total search logs, then publishes them; but it declines to describe the process of "sanitization", and there is evidence that users can be tracked through them.
Gmail was planned from the start as a massive surveillance system, to make psychological profiles not only of Gmail users but of everyone who sends mail to Gmail users.
Google quietly combined its ad-tracking profiles with its browsing profiles.
Google has found a way to track most credit card purchases in the US, even those not done through a phone, and correlate that with people's online actions.
Google can't do either side to me, since I pay cash and don't carry a mobile phone, and it doesn't know what web sites I look at.
Google Play sends app developers the personal details of users that install the app.
Merely asking users' "consent" for this is not enough to legitimize it. We know that most users have given up on reading just what they are "consenting" to, and the reason is that they are accustomed to being told, "If you want to use this service, you must consent to blah blah blah."
To truly protect people's privacy, we must stop Google from getting this personal information in the first place!
Google stores a huge amount of data on each user. This can include, in addition to the user's search history and advertising profile:
A timeline of the user's location throughout each day
Data on the usage of non-Google phone apps
'Deleted' emails and files uploaded to Google Drive
Facebook and Google joined with ISPs to defeat a privacy initiative in California.
Google has agreed to perform special censorship of Youtube for the government of Pakistan, deleting views that the state opposes.
YouTube has made private deals with the copyright industry to censor works that are fair use.
Google supported the TPP because of three mostly-evil provisions that would benefit Google.
https: //blog.google/outreach-initiatives/public-policy/the-trans-pacific-partnership-step/
Google has made it so that Chrome now automatically installs the DRM module. This makes it dangerous for security researchers in the US to investigate possible insecurity in Chrome
Google quietly makes "optional" web DRM mandatory in Chrome
https: //boingboing.net/2017/01/30/google-quietly-makes-optiona.html
The World Wide Web Consortium's Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) is a DRM system for web video, being pushed by Netflix, movie studios, and a few broadcasters. It's been hugely controversial within the W3C and outside of it, but one argument that DRM defenders have made throughout the debate is that the DRM is optional, and if you don't like it, you don't have to use it. That's not true any more.
Some time in the past few days, Google quietly updated Chrome (and derivative browsers like Chromium) so that Widevine (Google's version of EME) can no longer be disabled; it comes switched on and installed in every Chrome instance.
Because of laws like section 1201 of the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (and Canada's Bill C11, and EU implementations of Article 6 of the EUCD), browsers that have DRM in them are risky for security researchers to audit. These laws provide both criminal and civil penalties for those who tamper with DRM, even for legal, legitimate purposes, and courts and companies have interpreted this to mean that companies can punish security researchers who reveal defects in their products.
Microsoft Back Doors
Microsoft Windows has a universal back door through which any change whatsoever can be imposed on the users.
This was reported in 2007 for XP and Vista, and it seems that Microsoft used the same method to push the Windows 10 downgrade to computers running Windows 7 and 8.
In Windows 10, the universal back door is no longer hidden; all “upgrades” will be forcibly and immediately imposed.
Microsoft has backdoored its disk encryption.
The German government veers away from Windows 8 computers with TPM 2.0, due to potential back door capabilities of the TPM 2.0 chip.
Windows 8 also has a back door for remotely deleting apps.
You might well decide to let a security service that you trust remotely deactivate programs that it considers malicious. But there is no excuse for deleting the programs, and you should have the right to decide whom (if anyone) to trust in this way.
In its efforts to trick users of Windows 7 and 8 into installing all-spying Windows 10 against their will, Microsoft forced their computers to silently download… the whole of Windows 10! Apparently, this was done through a universal back door. Not only did the unwanted downloads jeopardize important operations in regions of the world with poor connectivity, but many of the people who let installation proceed found out that this “upgrade” was in fact a downgrade.
Windows 10 “upgrades” delete applications without asking permission.
Microsoft Surveillance
Windows 10 telemetry program sends information to Microsoft about the user's computer and their use of the computer.
Furthermore, for users who installed the fourth stable build of Windows 10, called the “Creators Update,” Windows maximized the surveillance by force setting the telemetry mode to “Full”.
The “Full” telemetry mode allows Microsoft Windows engineers to access, among other things, registry keys which can contain sensitive information like administrator's login password.
Skype contains spyware. Microsoft changed Skype specifically for spying.
It only gets worse with time. Windows 10 requires users to give permission for total snooping, including their files, their commands, their text input, and their voice input.
Apple has outsourced its user data storage in China to a company controlled by the Communist Party of the province of Guizhou
China's Guizhou province to oversee Apple's data project
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - China’s Guizhou province, where Apple Inc (AAPL.O) has set up its first data center in the country, plans to create a working committee chaired by communist party members to oversee the U.S. company’s iCloud facility.
China has started to police the Internet more closely and introduced a new cyber security law on June 1 that imposes tougher controls over data than in Europe and the United States, including mandating that companies store all data within China and pass security reviews.
https ://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-china-idUSKCN1AU1LH
Apple left a security hole in iTunes unfixed for 3 years after being informed about the problem. During that time, governments used that security hole to invade people's computers.
Apple Avoided $40 Billion in Taxes (by lobbying for a tax cut). Now It Wants a Gold Star?
https: //www.commondreams.org/views/2018/01/19/apple-avoided-40-billion-taxes-now-it-wants-gold-star
Tax avoidance
Apple practices tax avoidance using loopholes and lobbying.
Apple pioneered techniques for avoiding the US corporate tax (even though it is far too low) in orde
https: //www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/business/apples-tax-strategy-aims-at-low-tax-states-and-nations.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&hp