[CamperBob2]

What I do have is a constitutional right to privacy that does not end where my CPU begins, and an unshakeable resolve wherein I refuse to voluntarily cede that right to privacy just because so many others do.

Anger might help, if channeled properly into lobbying your representatives in Congress. Making up imaginary constitutional rights to a DRM-free PC won't help at all, though. Intel and AMD have the right to shove their spyware into their silicon, just as Microsoft has the right to shove theirs into their OS. You have the right to decline to buy it. Your rights end there, given that nothing they are doing is actually illegal.

That last part could change, which is why I recommend lobbying. It should be completely illegal to use a Wintel PC for a vast number of things that people are currently using them for, from healthcare to government services to military applications. If we can convince Congress of the threat, they can pass legislation that will wreck the business model of anyone who doesn't give the user -- or at least the admin -- control over what information the PC sends out and what it can receive. They will change their tune in a hurry when that happens.

[landemva]

> If we can convince Congress

That sounds good yet in practice even medical hippa privacy is bunk. Last week I went to a big hospital for a walk-in xray. They refused to take the pictures until I consented to their standard forms which provide for my results to be given to unnamed research groups. The check-in person acted like I was the first person ever to try to strike out that part of the form/contract. They literally refused treatment and the 'patient advocate' played her role of being pleasant and clueless.

I complained to hospital licensing at State which was rejected because it was not an unsafe care issue.

[anonym29]

Not completely related to privacy, but I do know of one state-level initiative to enshrine into law a requirement that the state largely end the requirement of proprietary software usage to interact with the state's various digital interfaces - "prohibiting, with limited exceptions, state agencies from requiring use of proprietary software in interactions with the public" - HB 617-FN in New Hampshire.

It's not a one-and-done solution but it's a big step in the right direction for government, especially for digital privacy.

More info: https://libreboot.org/news/usa-libre-part2.html

[CamperBob2]

How come you didn't want your results shared with research groups? It's not as if they're tagged with your name and SSN, are they?

[anonym29]

>Intel and AMD have the right to shove their spyware into their silicon

Correct.

>just as Microsoft has the right to shove theirs into their OS

Correct.

>You have the right to decline to buy it.

Ding ding ding!

>Your rights end there, given that nothing they are doing is actually illegal.

Correct. I am making a market demand with my money, not a legal order for these companies to stop producing untrustworthy hardware and snoopy software.