14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has recently announced new efforts to encrypt Internet traffic and thus protect users from potential government snooping programs, but while privacy advocates applauded Redmond’s decision, some people think this isn’t enough.
John Sullivan, executive director of the Free Software Foundation, which also encourages users to dump Windows for Linux, said in a press statement that Microsoft’s operating system remained “fundamentally insecure” because the company hides its code from users.
“Microsoft has made renewed security promises before. In the end, these promises are meaningless. Proprietary software like Windows is fundamentally insecure not because of Microsoft's privacy policies but because its code is hidden from the very users whose interests it is supposed to secure. A lock on your own house to which you do not have the master key is not a security system, it is a jail,” he said.
In Sullivan’s opinion, Microsoft’s level of transparency is not enough and, even though the software giant claims that it fights government spying programs, back doors and privacy violations are inevitable in operating systems whose code cannot be viewed by everyone.
“While the Microsoft announcement does promise ‘transparency’ to reassure people that there are no back doors in Windows, this is no solution. Transparency in the Windows world normally means self-reports commissioned by Microsoft, or access granted to outsiders covering very limited portions of source code under strict agreements that limit sharing that information,” he continued.
Sullivan then goes on to claim that Microsoft has a very different definition for the term “back door,” noting that nobody can tell for sure if Windows users are fully secure without looking at the code underneath it.
Of course, the director of the Free Software Foundation ends by saying that Linux is always a much safer alternative, encouraging everyone to “switch to a free software operating system and never look back.”