Originally this was a reply to this article about a Windows feature called Recall, but there's a good argument the author's concerns resonate far beyond Windows and Meta to proprietary generally.
If this is the same person I think it is, I would take their comments with a huge pile of salt. Not saying they're wrong, but...
A couple years ago this Linux-Is-Best dipshit somehow got onboarded as a mod of the /r/massachusetts subreddit, started banning a ton of users for pretty unreasonable reasons, brought a few other seemingly random moderators on board and almost nuked it out of existence by being an unhinged little weirdo. They claimed to have worked at Facebook/Meta and I forget which, but they were found out either to have made it up or they were just a bottom tier content moderation employee.
You can go find some posts about it, but this person's not well at all even if you happen to agree with them. If this is the same person. They're not trust worthy. Privacy's important, big companies are creepy, do what you can to protect yourself and use linux if that's what gets you there, but again I would take anything this dipshit says with a grain of salt.
Come the Windowscalypse, I'll probably be moving to Linux Mint. The only problem is ComfyUI. Managing Python packages makes me want to end myself. I might just keep dual booting Windows for SD alone.
One should be have been assuming since Windows 7 and automated online updates that the Microsoft key used to sign OS updates is in the hands of at least the NSA (and hence probably the Israeli equivalent) and they can push whatever they want to your computer as an OS update, bypassing all protections.
In fact the same applies to Linux updates of certain distros - if they're maintained by a company based in the US they can be forced by FISA courts to provide the signing keys to the US Government.
More in general, just go read about FISA courts and their secret court orders - companies based in the US or hosting things in the US can be secretly forced to just "give the keys of the Realm" to parts of the US Government.
Since things like the Patriot act one should be treating companies based in the US as just as untrustworthy as companies based in China.
(By the way, some other supposed Democratic countries have similar or worse systems - for example the equivalent of FISA courts in the UK have things like secret court sessions were the side which is not the State is not authorized to have a legal representation, see most of the evidence or even know the decision of the court).
Have people already forgot most of what came out in the Snowden Revelations?!
It's funny how they're saying "You need to use Linux" and not "You need to get off Facebook". How's Linux going to save you from Facebook spying on you?
To all the people who are criticising this guy for working for Meta, I would like to remind you of the phrase, "Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer".
I am very much a left-winger, but I still read right-wing papers and articles, I like to know what the other side is thinking.
I switched from Fedora to openSUSE recently and it has been painless. Would recommend to anyone who are looking to get away from US companies and US jurisdiction.
Edit: note that it uses RPM package manager though, I don't know yet if that is problematic or not. If someone knows then please elaborate on that.
I've done OSINT research and that alone converted me into a privacy advocate. Seeing how Alphabet, Meta, and MS have allowed creep to get training data... Whew. It's breathtaking and complicated beyond the ability to explain in 114 characters.
Y'all, we are cooked. Currently. Present tense. If you aren't freaked out already, you're missing about 85% of reality.
Switching from Windows to Linux isn't going to block them from monitoring your use of online services. Facebook doesn't even do anything in the OS space.
Shit I was just about to install PopOs! Which is developed by a US company. It's maddening trying to find the right distro that fits all the requirements.
Look, Software shouldn't be free and open Source. I really like that we probably have a decade left of it before it gets bundled with ad services which it should have been from the start. The more people that adopt it means that it's only a matter of time as long as we all just passively watch it get usurped