For those who don’t know, it’s a US anti-encryption bill that has potential to essentially end digital privacy as we know it by putting legal pressure on software and hardware vendors to implement backdoors like those proposed by Apple… Because many key tech companies such as Intel, AMD, Microsoft, and Apple are US-based, its consequences will reach far beyond the US…
The Senate Judiciary Committee has already voted to advance it, the only thing that can stop it now is overwhelming public pushback…
The FOSS community seriously needs to mount a SOPA-style campaign to raise awareness, but instead there’s only a deafening silence…
And yes, apps that are unrelated to privacy such as GIMP and darktable should join in as well:
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It’s extremely important to reach outside the tech nerd bubble.
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Having been desensitized to constant attacks on privacy, many people will dismiss this one as well, even though it’s probably the most grave threat yet. Seeing a graphics app of all things put up a dire warning on its website will hopefully make them realize the full gravity of the situation.
Just please, PLEASE be extremely careful not to overdo it and trigger further privacy restrictions in undemocratic countries. I live in one… Please use GeoIP to only show the warnings to US users, they’re the only people who can do anything about the bill anyway (i.e. contact their representatives).
