www/philosophy who-does-that-server-really-serv...

[Richard M. Stallman]

CVSROOT:        /web/www
Module name:    www
Changes by:     Richard M. Stallman <rms>       16/01/01 16:01:32

Modified files:
        philosophy     : who-does-that-server-really-serve.html 

Log message:
        Various clarifications.  Talk about homomorphic encryption.

CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.html?cvsroot=www&r1=1.56&r2=1.57

Patches:
Index: who-does-that-server-really-serve.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /web/www/www/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.html,v
retrieving revision 1.56
retrieving revision 1.57
diff -u -b -r1.56 -r1.57
--- who-does-that-server-really-serve.html      17 Dec 2015 12:09:47 -0000      
1.56
+++ who-does-that-server-really-serve.html      1 Jan 2016 16:01:31 -0000       
1.57
@@ -16,8 +16,7 @@
 
 <p><strong>On the Internet, proprietary software isn't the only way to
 lose your freedom.  Service as a Software Substitute, or SaaSS, is
-another way to let someone else have power over your
-computing.</strong></p>
+another way to give someone else power over your computing.</strong></p>
 
 SaaSS means using a service implemented by someone else as a
 substitute for running your copy of a program.  The term is ours;
@@ -51,10 +50,10 @@
 
 <p>With free software, we, the users, take back control of our
 computing.  Proprietary software still exists, but we can exclude it
-from our lives and many of us have done so.  However, we now face a
-new threat to our control over our computing: Service as a Software
-Substitute (SaaSS).  For our freedom's sake, we have to reject that
-too.</p>
+from our lives and many of us have done so.  However, we are now
+offered another tempting way to cede control over our computing:
+Service as a Software Substitute (SaaSS).  For our freedom's sake, we
+have to reject that too.</p>
 
 <h3>How Service as a Software Substitute Takes Away Your Freedom</h3>
 
@@ -70,7 +69,7 @@
 <p>The computing is <em>her own</em> because, by assumption, she
 could, in principle, have done it by running a program on her own
 computer (whether or not that program is available to her at
-present).  When this assumption is not so, it isn't SaaSS.</p>
+present).  In cases where this assumption is not so, it isn't SaaSS.</p>
 
 <p>These servers wrest control from the users even more inexorably
 than proprietary software.  With proprietary software, users typically
@@ -106,6 +105,12 @@
 leaked from there</a>.
 </p>
 
+<p>Theoretically, homomorphic encryption might some day advance to the
+point where future SaaSS services might be constructed to be unable to
+understand some of the data that users send them.  Such
+services <em>could</em> be set up not to snoop on users; this does not
+mean they <em>will</em> do no snooping.</p>
+
 <p>Some proprietary operating systems have a universal back door,
 permitting someone to remotely install software changes.  For
 instance, Windows has a universal back door with which Microsoft can
@@ -218,16 +223,18 @@
 
 <p>Rejecting SaaSS does not mean refusing to use any network servers
 run by anyone other than you.  Most servers are not SaaSS because the
-jobs they do are not the user's own computing.</p>
+jobs they do are some sort of communication, rather than the user's
+own computing.</p>
 
 <p>The original idea of web servers wasn't to do computing for you, it
 was to publish information for you to access.  Even today this is what
 most web sites do, and it doesn't pose the SaaSS problem, because
 accessing someone's published information isn't doing your own
-computing.  Neither is publishing your own materials via a blog site
-or a microblogging service such as Twitter or StatusNet.  (These
-services may have other problems, of course.)  The same goes for other
-communication not meant to be private, such as chat groups.</p>
+computing.  Neither is use of a blog site to publish your own works,
+or usinga microblogging service such as Twitter or StatusNet.  (These
+services may or may not have other problems, depending on details.)
+The same goes for other communication not meant to be private, such as
+chat groups.</p>
 
 <p>In its essence, social networking is a form of communication and
 publication, not SaaSS.  However, a service whose main facility is
@@ -447,7 +454,7 @@
 
 <p class="unprintable">Updated:
 <!-- timestamp start -->
-$Date: 2015/12/17 12:09:47 $
+$Date: 2016/01/01 16:01:31 $
 <!-- timestamp end -->
 </p>
 </div>