Category Archives: Digitality

Posts about computers, digital life, computer user freedom, free culture movement, free software philosophy, libre programs, digital freedom, privacy, DRM, digital rights, and similar stuff.

I’m looking for someone who can host a WordPress website

UPDATE: I Moved to WordPress

Since few years ago, I’m building my blogs using Jekyll static site generator. Now, after some years, I’m deciding to move to a WordPress blog as I travel a lot and I want to be able to update my blog using different devices. As I explained on some toots, I can’t pay for a service based outside of Iran as my homeland is under heavy sanctions from U.S. and its allies. We can’t even open a bank account outside of Iran.

I don’t want to use a hosting service based in Iran as all of the providers have to follow rules/laws and it can be led to closing my blog if I write something that the government doesn’t like. I’m searching for someone or a foundation that can provide a host that I can install WordPress on and connect my domains to it.

My current website is kindly hosted by amazing Autistici/Inventati and they’re privacy-focused and use free software. It’s important to that the hosting service uses free software and doesn’t violate people’s rights about privacy.

If you’re interested in helping me, please drop me a message.

Victory! ICANN rejects .ORG sale to private equity firm Ethos Capital

In a stunning victory for nonprofits and NGOs around the world working in the public interest, ICANN today roundly rejected Ethos Capital’s plan to transform the .ORG domain registry into a heavily indebted for-profit entity. This is an important victory that recognizes the registry’s long legacy as a mission-based, non-for-profit entity protecting the interests of thousands of organizations and the people they serve.

We’re glad ICANN listened to the many voices in the nonprofit world urging it not to support the sale of Public Interest Registry, which runs .ORG, to private equity firm Ethos Capital. The proposed buyout was an attempt by domain name industry insiders to profit off of thousands of nonprofits and NGOs around the world. Saying the sale would fundamentally change PIR into an “entity bound to serve the interests of its corporate stakeholders” with “no meaningful plan to protect or serve the .ORG community,” ICANN made clear that it saw the proposal for what it was, regardless of Ethos’ claims that nonprofits would continue to have a say in their future.

The sale threatened to bring censorship and increased operating costs to the nonprofit world. As EFF warned, a private equity-owned registry would have a financial incentive to suspend domain names—causing websites to go dark—at the request of powerful corporate interests and governments.

In a blog post about its decision, ICANN also pointed out how the deal risked the registry’s financial stability. They noted that the $1.1 billion proposed sale would change PIR “from a viable not-for-profit entity to a for-profit entity with a US$360 million debt obligation.” The debt was not for the benefit of PIR or the .ORG community, but for the financial interests of Ethos and its investors. And Ethos failed to convince ICANN that it would not drain PIR of its financial resources, putting the stability and security of the .ORG registry at risk.

“ICANN entrusted to PIR the responsibility to serve the public interest in its operation of the .ORG registry, and now ICANN is being asked to transfer that trust to a new entity without a public interest mandate.”

ICANN was not convinced by the token “stewardship council” that Ethos proposed in an attempt to add an appearance of accountability. Echoing EFF’s own letter, they noted that “the membership of the Stewardship Council is subject to the approval of PIR’s board of directors and, as a result, could become captured by or beholden to the for-profit interests of PIR’s owners and therefore are unlikely to be truly independent of Ethos Capital or PIR’s board.”

Many organizations worked hard to persuade ICANN to reject the sale. We were joined by the National Council of Nonprofits, NTEN, Access Now, The Girl Scouts of America, Consumer Reports, the YMCA, Demand Progress, OpenMedia, Fight for the Future, Wikimedia, Oxfam, Greenpeace, Consumer Reports, FarmAid, NPR, the American Red Cross, and dozens of other household names. Nonprofit professionals and technologists even gathered in Los Angeles in January to tell ICANN their concerns in person. The coalition defending the .ORG domain was as diverse as .ORG registrants themselves, encompassing all areas of public interest: aid organizations, corporate watchdogs, museums, clubs, theater companies, religious organizations, and much, much more. Petitions to reject the sale received over 64,000 signatures, and nearly 900 organizations signed on. Joining them in their concerns were Members of Congress, UN Special Rapporteurs, and state charity regulators [pdf].

A late development that affected ICANN’s decision was the letter [pdf] from California’s Attorney General, Xavier Becerra. Citing EFF and other members of the coalition, Becerra’s letter urged ICANN to reject the sale. Although ICANN received many last-minute appeals from some parts of its policymaking community urging the organization to ignore Becerra’s letter, ICANN acknowledged that as it is a California nonprofit, it could not afford to ignore its state regulator.

Because PIR is incorporated in Pennsylvania, that state’s courts must approve its conversion into a for-profit company. Pennsylvania’s attorney general is investigating the sale, and may also weigh in. In its rationale, ICANN states that it will allow PIR and Ethos to submit a new application if they are able to get the approval of this other body with authority over the deal. But all of the reasons behind ICANN’s rejection of the sale will confront Ethos in Pennsylvania, as well.

This decision by ICANN is a hard-fought victory for nonprofit Internet users. But the .ORG registry still needs a faithful steward, because the Internet Society has made clear it no longer wants that responsibility. ICANN should hold an open consultation, as they did in 2002, to select a new operator of the .ORG domain that will give nonprofits a real voice in its governance, and a real guarantee against censorship and financial exploitation.

(original post)

Government apps during pandemic

There’s daily reports about violating people’s privacy during Cornoavirus pandemic and some of these violations are happening because of proprietary apps published by governments which keep track of people. The idea of government keeping people safe by forcing them to stay home is something I can understand (yet disagree with) but governments are not trustworthy and there’s a high risk that they keep these data/profiles even after pandemic to misuse.

Continue reading

Criticizing privacy violations

Criticism of violating people’s privacy is not limited to a particular organization or individual. If any service (etc.) violates users’ privacy rights, it should be criticized. Doesn’t matter if it’s libre, proprietary, governmental, or private. People’s privacy should be respected no matter what service you’re providing or how your service is working. If you can’t respect people, change your service and if you can’t change it then stop.

We should all agree that most people in the world don’t know how their private life and privacy is being violated and there’s some people that spread disinformation in support of these services. We should also stop calling these data-hungry companies “services” because what they provide is a platform to steal people’s data and it’s not a service.

We don’t encourage people to stop using Google because we don’t like Google (I mean we don’t like it but it’s not the point), we tell people stop using Google because Google and other similar evil corporations are violating people’s rights (and that’s why we don’t like it). If a free software service tracks people or violates people’s privacy rights in any way, it should be criticized too. We should not have double standards or differentiate between services; specially when it comes to libre services as such services may create a bad impression of free software among users.

Don’t waste server resources

I’ve talked about it before many times but as I see this happening again and again, I write it here too. Most of free software services are provided by individuals or small teams/collectives that are generous enough to spend their time and money to help society be more free and secure. We should know that nothing is free; we may not pay for these services but the maintainers are paying to keep their software/serivce up. They pay for servers, domain names, developing costs, and some other stuff.

Some people may not be able to donate or help developing these libre software/services but the thing we can do is to avoid causing more costs for the maintainers. It’s actually pretty simple. Just don’t create an account on a libre service/software if you don’t need it. This can reduce the amount of data that those maintainers should store/handle on their paid server and this can help their service cost less.

I encourage you to share this note (or a similar one) with your friends to help these service providers.

Don’t sell my personal information

There’s a small note in footer (or another places you probably never look) on some websites that offers you a form to complete (with your personal data of course) to ask them not to sell your personal data.

Keeping personal data private (and/or not storing them at all) is a basic right. Privacy is a basic right for humans and we should not fill forms to stop corporations collecting/selling them. Privacy is not a luxury, it’s a right.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) and Privacy (part 2)

As of today, more than 4700 people are dead and a lot of countries, like United Kingdom, are not doing what they can do about it. Italy, that has most cases in Europe, is now closing all borders of the country and it quarantined about 12 cities completely.

I told you before to follow the instructions your local government gives you to stay healthy but I’ve heard that some countries and governments are not publishing software to control the virus but they’re doing it to collect people information.

I believe staying at home and following instructions from WHO is more useful than anything. Please follow those instructions that are published by experts. Wash your hands regularly and don’t leave home for anything not 10/10 emergency.

Some people are taking it not serious. Some football (soccer) players are now infected and many people who were making fun of it are now experiencing this disease.

It’s not funny. You can die. Stay in home, stay healthy.

Being paranoid

The word “paranoid” is somehow producing a negative feeling for people but I think it should be almost otherwise, specially when it comes to technology. I’m very proud that I’m being called paranoid sometimes because it means that I’m doing my job, to protect myself, right.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) and Privacy

Some countries launched a program to track people who are in danger of getting infected with the new Coronavirus. If you’re in one of these countries, please follow the instructions provided from your local government. Your health situation is much more important. I believe there’s not enough time (now) to come up with an alternative to both track the health situation of people and being securely private.

I’m currently following the news about these programs and we may can force governments to purge data stored from citizens during this tracking program. If you have any information about this applications, please let me, EFF, and FSF know about it.

My contact information is on my contact page.
Contact EFF with details provided on eff.org/about/contact.
Free Software Foundation contact information is available on fsf.org/about/contact.