Why closed hardware is not a good idea

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Voortzetting van de discussie Finally BIOS update for Lenovo E540:

Of all manufacturers Apple makes the most closed source hardware AND software. Why is this bad? Because it takes away your control. Opensource is and was never about not paying for software. Opensource is all about having control over the software (and hardware) you use.
All Apple hard- and software is a big black box. You put something in, you get something out but what happens inside the box is a big mystery. You don’t know if/how the software is phoning home. (Well, don’t know IF? You can BET on it, Apple software always phones home) A simple here I am is not that bad you think, but you don’t know if the phone home is just a simple ‘here I am’. Apple is (like Facebook, Google and MS and a lot others) a MAJOR data miner for personal profiles. IMO this is risky, scary and highly unwanted.
That’s why I NEVER will use any Apple product. (it’s also why I don’t have a FB account and use my own mailserver, have Owncloud and not dropbox etc…)

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Hi,

I don’t really disagree with what yout said…

But Lenovo probably have backdoor: http://www.techworm.net/2015/08/lenovo-pcs-and-laptops-seem-to-have-a-bios-level-backdoor.html
Juniper probably have backdoor: http://www.wired.com/2015/12/researchers-solve-the-juniper-mystery-and-they-say-its-partially-the-nsas-fault/
Huawei too… http://www.techeye.net/business/huawei-products-do-have-backdoors
Cisco… http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/09/malicious-cisco-router-backdoor-found-on-79-more-devices-25-in-the-us/

And no Open Source powerfull hardware to deal wth…
Really bad time for security… :anguished:

Finally, we can choose what kind of backdoor we want :cold_sweat:

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You are right. Sadly we live in a sick world full of spies. It all comes to your choice on what you think is acceptable to let others know about you.
I think privacy is an important issue. There for I choose to do as much as possible to keep control of my privacy.
For some services I choose to use only software I control myself. For other services I accept to give away some privacy, but always in a limited way.
I might seem to live with an aluminium hat on, but since the documents revealed by Edward Snowden, it is quite clear that what we always thought was happening actually happened on an exponential scale.

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Since around 2004, I regulary look around this very interesting subject…

THere very few existing solution, very confidential, and generally pricey :smirk:

Since my late investigation ( more than a year ), there’s interresting project: like this one:

and

If you are another entry point, please share with us :smiley:

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A Kickstarter project:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/onetswitch/onetswitch-open-source-hardware-for-networking/description

But will not run NethServer…

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Soekris not doing open hardware, but their product line has a wonderfull reputation in the open source world:
http://soekris.com/products/net6501-1.html

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