Richard Stallman, the guru of free software, on Sunday warned social network users to be wary of Facebook, saying it was, in essence, a surveillance system.
“It is not your friend. It is collecting data on you. The surveillance by Facebook is bigger than what you probably think. Don't ever use the like button in FB as it immediately transfers information on you to someone,” Stallman said as he addressed a gathering of free software enthusiasts, here.
Never feel shy of taking on the establishment, Stallman said, and minced no words when he criticized the Indian government's attempt to introduce Internet censorship. “In a free society, one should be prepared to get offended. Otherwise it’s tyranny," he opined.
Asked about his struggle to promote the free software movement since 1983, Stallman said developing a free software was a large job. “But large doesn't mean impossible. Many gave up the struggle. I succeeded as I tried.”
Stallman, who waged a long battle against proprietary software, now saw ‘secret hardware’ as a new threat to freedom.
“So we have to do reverse engineering now.” He was also of the view that mobile phones were full of proprietary software and could be used to snoop on users.
“If the user controls the programme it's fine but if the programme controls the user then there is a problem,” he said of his philosophy.
