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The initial injustice of proprietary software often leads to further injustices: malicious functionalities.
The introduction of unjust techniques in nonfree software, such as back doors, DRM, tethering, and others, has become ever more frequent. Nowadays, it is standard practice.
We at the GNU Project show examples of malware that has been introduced in a wide variety of products and dis-services people use everyday, and of companies that make use of these techniques.
Here are our latest additions
November 2024
- Kia cars were built with a back door that enabled the company’s server to locate them and take control of them. The car’s owner had access to these controls through the Kia server. This in itself is not objectionable. However, that Kia itself had such control is Orwellian, and ought to be illegal. The icing on the Orwellian cake is that the server had a security fault which allowed absolutely anyone to activate those controls for any Kia car. Many people will be outraged at that security bug, but this was presumably an accident. The fact that Kia had such control over cars after selling them to customers is what outrages us, and that must have been intentional on Kia’s part.
- BMW has retreated from making car owners pay for a subscription to the heated seats feature. Customers rejected it. Bravo for them! Instead BMW plans to require subscriptions for digital services and disservices—things related to the Orwellian tracking done by any “connected” car.
- Dating apps exploit their users; fundamental features require an expensive subscription, and they are designed to be addictive.
Apple’s Operating Systems Are Malware
- A back door in Apple devices, present and abused from at least 2019 until 2023, allowed crackers to have full control over them by sending iMessage texts that installed malware without any action on the user’s part. Infections, among other things, gave the intruders access to owners’ microphone recordings, photos, location and other personal data.
July 2024
- Spotify sold a music streaming device but they no longer support it. Due to its proprietary nature, it can no longer be updated or even used. Users requested Spotify to make the software that runs on the device libre, and Spotify refused, so these devices are now e-waste. Spotify is now offering refunds to save the purchasers from losing money on these products, but this wouldn’t prevent the products from being e-waste, and wouldn’t save users from being jerked around by Spotify. This is an example of how software that is not free controls the user instead of the user controlling the software. It is also an important lesson for us to insist the software in a device be libre before we buy it.
May 2024
Microsoft’s Software is Malware
- Microsoft is using malware tactics to get users to switch to their web browser, Microsoft Edge, and their search engine, Microsoft Bing. When users launch the Google Chrome browser Microsoft injects a pop up advertisement in the corner of the screen advising users to switch to Bing. Microsoft also imported users Chrome browsing data without their knowledge or consent.
April 2024
- GM is spying on drivers who own or rent their cars, and give away detailed driving data to insurance companies through data brokers. These companies then analyze the data, and hike up insurance prices if they think the data denotes “risky driving.” For the car to make this data available to anyone but the owner or renter of the car should be a crime. If the car is owned by a rental company, that company should not have access to it either.
