Every Intel and AMD chip since 2008 has a backdoor that allows hardware manufacturers (and presumably the NSA) to manage files and network connections remotely, without the device’s owner even knowing. Purism has disabled it, Apple has not.

Indeed, Apple is not as privacy-focussed as it pretends to be. Along with embracing that backdoor, it sends app usage metadata to its servers. Its image scanning is yet another dangerous development: bugs in the algorithm could lead to people being wrongfully detained.

5G may be fast but it can pinpoint our location to the metre.

Tor is an American federal weapons contractor. Judging by Europol acknowledging that it has a way to deanonymise people using the network, using Tor is the same as wearing a black cloak in a room in which everyone else wears white.

The bank ING is integrating personal health records into its website. This could be a way to turn people into slaves by forcing them to surrender their bodies to Big Pharma, just to keep what was always rightfully theirs.

I am writing this series of posts not to convey gloom and defeat, but to highlight how much manipulation, corruption, and secret surveillance there is around us.

We should act, and do so now. Switch to open-source software—its transparency makes vulnerabilities easier to find. For those developing it, self-host instead of relying on GitHub and the like. Boycotting banks, Big Tech, and the many organisations that want to decide what’s “best” for us is painful at first, but has to be done to stop cyber-tyranny.