secret_island

I'm sure they are getting their playbook from their Chinese friends. Even Japan is getting more heavy handed than they were, and in Asia, they are the most liberal of all governments in comparison.

Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, all heavy handed as regards the Internet. Russia, China, most of the former Balkan states, Turkey... Brazil, even.

Quite right. Israel's El Al simply profiles everyone that flies and by doing so they obviate the need to use stupid, expensive equipment that does nothing other than bottleneck airports and cause frustration. The Israelis are the best in the world at what they do regarding air security. The West has considered using the same techniques and they likely should. I'm not opposed to profiling if the person fits the profile. Better profiling than dead innocents. People do not have the right to not be offended. I get the heavy hand for some reason every time I fly and I'm literally the grey man, but I understand and go along with it. I'm also squeeky clean from a legal standpoint.

This behavior plus their own internal social credit system to rate all Chinese citizens. Sadly, some American companies are embracing this. I remember that one company that tried this nonsens, Klout, I believe it was. What rubbish. The human variables are almost limitless. To shoehorn, pigeon hole, whatever people into a set number of variables is simply evil and smacks of an utter desire to control. I can understand the Chinese doing it. They have always had a heavy hand on their own. This tends to be an Asian constant with regard to governments. Even the Japanese are like this. I lived there for three years and noticed it almost immediately. All foreigners must immediately register themselves with the police. You are ALWAYS an outsider. ALWAYS. You are referred to as "gaijin", literally outsider/foreigner, often to your face. There are estblishments aplenty that literally have signs in the windows stating, "No Gaijin". One gets a taste of what black people in America got back in the first half of the 20th century.

I'm worried about the social credit nonsense taking off again. Some think that here in the West we are going to go cashless quicker than previously thought. I will hold out as long as possible. People have the right to buy and sell anonymously.

Sure. Some clients prefer us to use Linux, since their teams large or small are comfortable with it. OpenBSD is still a rather esoteric OS for most. I've been using both since 1998, so I can go either way. RedHat/CentOS offer support for 10 years is high up on the totem pole for me and plenty of others. OpenBSD releases every 6 months like most Linux distros, so some mission-critical users are uncomfortable with this pace, and I cannot say I blame them.

SELinux is great for areas that are into DAC/MAC/RBAC, plus the aforementioned lengthy support. I see more and more customers wanting Red Hat/CentOS than any other Linux distro and for good reason. It just works. Things like CPanel only run on these distros. Red Hat/CentOS are also very predictable and they offer superb documentation. More and more people are uncomfortable with things like Debian because there is no throat to choke if they need support or if something goes pear shaped.

I have worked on Linux for 20 years now and I have never, ever seen Debian or Slackware or even Ubuntu in a TRULY mission-critical role. People may disagree, but there are reasons why Red Hat/CentOS are chosen. They are typically very stable, use tested software, and are well documented for the use cases they excel in. Red Hat runs some truly mission critical stuff like power grids, and more and more SCADA systems, now that they are being upgraded due to threats.

Thank you for your comments. You are right. What with the now ultra-cheap Amazon and Google in-home devices, it's increasingly difficult to have a "safe" space. Like you, I will not invite this nonsense into my home. I don't use Siri, won't use any Google product, and I don't have any iot devices other than my iPhone, and I don't use non-Apple apps.

I use OpenBSD and Fedora Linux for the majority of my work and I heavily filter my personal and work connections. Being I run the firewall at work, I took the liberty of blocking all advertising connections to our buildings to save on bandwidth. My boss was thrilled to learn this could be done.

People are horrified to learn that I, an IT veteran of now 20 years have the attitude I do towards technology. It seems everyday there is a new startup offering the same old dreck that all of them seem to offer--ways to divest you of your privacy, freedoms, etc. I never bite. I stick with the minimalism I always have.

There are no "better" ads. The only good ads are the ones I cannot see. My computer, my rules. Lately now blocking coin mining in addition to all ads, trackers, beacons, pixels, etc. I have the right to surf on my terms. Traffic to websites is a cost of doing business; don't try to recoup in ways that I never agreed to (mining), selling my data w/o my permissions, etc.

You have to love the tripe in the article: "Better ads experience..." No one enjoys the experience. No one except those in a position to make money from same. Everyday IT people and others find ads intrusive, annoying, and dangerous. Ads are a major vector for malware. Again, my rules, my computer. I've not seen an ad in many years, but I do keep up with the tech and means to keep blocking all newcoming means to circumvent my own security.

Long-time OpenBSD user here. OpenBSD has sane, secure defaults with nothing enabled in a fresh install. This is a desired default, as everyone uses OSes for different reasons. OpenBSD makes a phenomenal firewall, a pretty good Web server, and a super nice, secure file server.

OpenBSD shines because of the ongoing code audit, the minimalism, and the ability to easily make it into whatever you want. I don't care for any other OS for serious business. I will almost always use OpenBSD for servers, with RedHat or CentOS being the only other choice because of SELinux.

I would also venture to say that OpenBSD has the absolute best documentation of any OS out there, even better than FreeBSD.