Tfw every application made in the last ten years down to browsers and operating systems gathers your personal data and...

>tfw every application made in the last ten years down to browsers and operating systems gathers your personal data and sells it to the highest bidder

Well yeah.

They're going to find some way to monetize, and most people aren't going to pay money for a web browser/most basic programs. So the only alternatives are to either stuff free versions with advertisements (which gives users something visible to hate) or collect/sell your user data (which most people don't notice until someone posts something on Slashdot). So unless you want to return to the era of every piece of software costing money, telemetry/data farming will continue to be the norm.

So unless you want to return to the era of every piece of software costing money

That is exactly what I want.

Then good luck, you've got quite a road ahead of you if the plan is to bring everyone back in time.

minimize the damage

>use FOSS
>don't worry about this at all

the problem i have with foss is the bystander effect

sure, the source code is right there, but has anybody bothered to check it for malicious stuff?

That, and the support it gets isn't as great as people say. Sure, anyone can look at the source code and potentially "fix" it, but most people who actually do that are merely content to get it working on their machine, then fuck everyone else's use case (unless said FOSS program is backed by some major foundation or whatnot).

>but has anybody bothered to check it for malicious stuff?
of course not and of course it's riddled with bugs that could have been harmful intention
or it is declared "telemetry" (eg Atom)

I'VE GOT BOXES FULL OF WOJAK

i agree with this, not enough people security audit or really add substantial code, i wanna see some more decent projects get started in the FOSS community.

Openstack.

>That is exactly what I want.
Well, you can find a niche product or produce/fund your own venture, but otherwise you're more or less at the mercy of what the majority of end users want.

I say this as a developer who has monetized somewhat effectively both ways, the cash-free method causes fewer headaches now. Firstly, people don't expect the polish on free apps they do from paid, secondly, revenue is much more predictable when selling data, and finally, you can supplement your data money with donation money without as many complaints of "I already paid for this!"

Is it an ethical issue in the industry? Yeah, I think so. Matter of fact if it wasn't so much easier to monetize via strait sale, I'd say it was probably unethical to go the data route. That said, until and unless we develop better systems for crowdsourcing without paying (((middle men))) so much the better alternative is almost universally going to be free farm.

In case your wondering, relatively minor changes in FCC regs could accomplish this. At the moment it's essentially illegal to get funding directly from a non-relative in excess of trivial amounts for the purpose of funding a public commercial job. That's intended to make it harder to scam the little guy, but since they still allow people to flush their money indirectly through authorized middle-men like gofundme (a front for two big banks that should have died in '08) the point is moot. The spirit of the law has already been violated. Either the whole thing should be scrapped so we can better trade for our software needs or the middle-men should be required to operate at-cost as a public utility.

I'd propose to see if there will be some suspicious connections when it stands still.

If it's free, you're the product.

gnu/linux

You're supposed to take an active approach to your computing rather than a passive approach. If you need support in operating your free software or modifying your free software, then it is your responsibility to find a helper to help you. There are countless consultants out there who are able to help you do anything you need to do but it is up to you to go find them to help you.

Windows costs from $100 to $200 US for consumer versions.

Except for open-source applications.

The only winning move is not to play the game.

really makes you think

Rember there was a huge fuss about "google prefs" cookie, the one in snowden
That stores all data

Look at creds in an app,
Its there

Where can I buy this data?

make an inquiry with the company whos data you want

Beta testing for free.

Only Fedora as well as unstable versions of other distributions are "beta testing for free". Redhat, CentOS, and stable versions of Debian-based distros are all properly tested.