Web services used on your computer, smartphone, tablets (and other devices)are usually hosted on the “cloud”: servers spread across the planet, that host not only your data (emails, pictures, files, etc.), but also the application code.<br /> For your data, this raises the issue of sustainability (what would become of your files if Dropbox were to close tomorrow?) and of your ability to switch easily between services (how would you recover your data from Facebook or Picasa and import it, with all the adjoining comments, into another service?). <br /> For applications, this means that <strong>you are completely at the mercy of your service provider</strong> when it comes to proliferation of advertisements, changes to the user interface, etc., and that you have hardly any control over the way an application works. It is a “black box” that can exhibit malicious behaviour (sending spam SMS without your knowledge, executing malicious code, and so on).<br /> In short, these companies trap us in gilded cages: gilded yes, but cages nonetheless!
The story of the Internet itself is one of free software, and this goes for standards as well as protocols. Its potential and popularity are a cause for envy, and large companies would like nothing better than to control it by imposing closed-source, locked-down, and non-interoperable systems.
For the Internet to stay true to its founding principles, those which have led to its success, users must be able to choose free software, that is to say, software whose source code remains open and accessible and is covered by a free software license.
We oppose the exploitation, surveillance, censorship and appropriation of data in favour of transparency (probity), clear presentation of services’ terms of use and refusing discrimination.
@:meta.F aims to <a href="@:link.dio"> offer around thirty free alternative services</a> to provide a substitute for those services which, once they get hold of us, proceed to feed upon our data.<br /> But there are many other players working to de-google-ify Internet and many other such services.
You will find <a href="#tips" rel="nofollow">below</a>, a list summarizing and supplementing the alternatives presented on the map. It is inspired by <a href="https://prism-break.org/en/">Prism-Break</a> which promotes other software in more specialized areas.
In the list, each service generally includes a <b>complex website</b><span aria-hidden="true">(<i class="fa fa-fw fa-cloud"></i>)</span> communicating with <b>software installed on a computer</b><span aria-hidden="true">(<i class="fa fa-fw fa-server"></i>)</span> which stores personal data and which can be accessed through various <b>home-based tools</b><span aria-hidden="true">(<i class="fa fa-fw fa-house"></i>)</span>.
So when we use Internet, we must necessarily <b>trust several links in the chain</b> joining us to our personal data online. Unless we self-host, <b>the <i lang="en">cloud</i> is always someone else"e;s computer</b>. It is therefore important to know who we are being asked to trust and what their software is doing with our data.
De-googl-ify Internet is a campaign that lasted three years (Oct. 2014 - Oct. 2017), but which is part of a more general Framasoft journey.<br /> Browse through the fresco below to discover the key dates (full screen <a href="@:link.dio/@:lang/timeline">available here</a>).
The visuals below are under free license, the credits are specified under each tab.<br /> These visuals are in large size (contrary to appearances). However, if you need a higher resolution, feel free to <a href="@:link.contact/#presse">contact us</a>.
