If you thought you could oppose digital ID. Ask yourself this: Are you using an unmodified Apple or Android smartphone or a computer running Windows? If the answer is yes, then you are using digital ID already, and you will soon lose all control of the software you thought you owned.- Maybe.
“You’ll own nothing, and you’ll be happy“
The background comes from the Danish politician Ida Auken, who had previously written in 2014 about a hackathon at the World Economic Forum that proposed “FridgeFlix”, a startup that would allow users to lease all of their household appliances from a provider that would also service and upgrade these appliances. We have TV on Demand but not appliances. In context, this seems reasonable. My over 10-year-old cooker was insured under a home appliances policy and ceased to work. For the cost of delivery, removal and recycling of the old one and reinstallation of the new one (£180), I received a new cooker for £600, for an annual premium of £120. (They have now changed premium rules; they don’t want to insure my over 10-year-old white goods.)
Windows 10 reached its official end of support on October 14, 2025. Standard free security updates, bug fixes, and technical assistance have stopped, though extended security patch programs run through October 12, 2027. After that, Windows could force a changeover to Windows 11 via a bad Windows update or software glitch that can “soft-brick” Windows 10 by making it unable to boot. While this is unlikely to damage hardware, it could mean loss of your work. While it is unlikely to damage physical hardware, Windows 11 requires specific hardware compatibility. Windows 11 will force you to upgrade your physical system to Windows compatibility. Your Computer may already be pretty new too. Then, on top of that, another cost is the licence:
- Windows 11 Home (Full Retail Licence): £119.99
- Windows 11 Pro (Full Retail Licence): £219.99
- Windows 11 Home to Pro Upgrade: £119.99 or less via the active device’s internal store menu
- Windows 11 Pro for Workstations: £339.00
Unless you have a Windows 10 license on a Windows 11-compatible machine.
Unless you are running Windows 11 set up as a local account, either by bypassing Microsoft’s mandatory online account requirement during a fresh OS installation using a quick command prompt trick… “Microsoft is tightening the screws on local account creation in Windows 11, removing well-known workarounds that let users skip the Microsoft account requirement during setup, with an active internet connection required. ..
While the company is steering users to set up Microsoft accounts during the out-of-the-box experience (OOBE) initial setup of Win11, it is possible to bypass that step with specific commands, issued at a cmd prompt invoked with Shift-F10.” Microsoft to kill local account workarounds in Windows 11 preview builds
In time, Microsoft will remove this, forcing users to have an internet account and a Microsoft ID. This is a Digital ID connected to you and your banking /Credit/Debit Card. The same banking details as your smartphone is connected to.
Your smartphone constantly knows where you are, and every few seconds reports that to your service provider. The Digital ID that you didn’t consent to is in your pocket and, in some parts of the world, can be used to target you for assassination with your family. The CIA and most likely also UK intelligence services have access to software allowing them to activate the smart TV, even when it is NOT on Standby.
“Recently, the CIA lost control of the majority of its hacking arsenal, including malware, viruses, trojans, weaponised “zero day” exploits, malware remote control systems and associated documentation. This extraordinary collection, which amounts to more than several hundred million lines of code, gives its possessor the entire hacking capacity of the CIA. The archive appears to have been circulated among former U.S. government hackers and contractors in an unauthorised manner, one of whom has provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive” https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/#PRESS
“Meta Tapped a Pentagon Supplier to Prototype Face Recognition for Its Glasses: Rank One, whose board includes a former CIA deputy director and a former FBI science chief, supplied face recognition to Meta for internal development of its smart glasses app” Wired
Device or Server Access: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg: While end-to-end encryption protects data in transit on platforms like WhatsApp, intelligence agencies can access user messages or logs if they physically compromise or exploit vulnerabilities directly on a user’s device via targeted spyware.
Did You Consent to a Digital ID That Spies on You?
“In December 2024, Apple agreed to pay $95 million to settle a lawsuit claiming Siri had been recording private conversations without anyone saying “Hey Siri.” One plaintiff said he received an ad for a surgical treatment after discussing it privately with his doctor. Another got ads for Air Jordans and Olive Garden after mentioning them out loud. Apple denied wrongdoing. A federal judge approved the settlement in September 2025.
Google’s own court documents in the $68 million settlement confirmed that Assistant sometimes activated with no wake word at all, what engineers call a “false accept.” When that happened, the audio that followed was recorded, and in some cases shared with advertisers. The Apple Siri case made the identical allegation. Northeastern researchers separately found over 1,000 word combinations that could falsely trigger smart speakers into active listening: ordinary words you would use in any normal conversation.
A 2024 Consumer Reports investigation found that over 60 per cent of mobile users had microphone access switched on for apps with no legitimate need for it: weather apps, shopping apps, games and utilities. Google itself classifies microphone access as a “dangerous permission,” its own term in the Android developer documentation, because it exposes such sensitive information.” Freedomtech
Your phone is not listening to you 24/7; the problem is always-on wake-word listening that misfires or is accidentally activated by the user in conversation. Your phone isn’t listening to you, but what happens is that Hey Google and Siri wake-up listening is always on, and this is where the problems start.
Securing Your Device
Face Unlock? The police or a criminal can take your phone, point your camera at your face, and unlock it. Do you have something to hide or get stolen from your device? Of course you do.
Switch off microphone access for apps that don’t need it.
Choose your apps carefully. “In May 2023, cybersecurity firm ESET discovered that a screen-recording app called iRecorder, with over 50,000 downloads from the official Google Play Store, had been quietly updated to add malicious code. Once installed, it recorded one minute of ambient audio every 15 minutes and uploaded it to a remote server. It had been doing this undetected for almost a year.”Freedomtech
Free Open Source Software Alternative to Windows & Android
Graphene: is the most secure Android OS, allowing total control of the device and access to all systems within the device for user control. Graphene allows the user to deactivate the mobile data connection to the extent that it cannot be activated by a Stingray or any other spy device to log the device location or presence. Graphene, like Linux, is open source: This means that the Software can be examined and developers can ascertain whether it is doing nefarious things with your data.
Linux for the prepared
I have been a sworn user and installer of Linux for at least 20 years. I have used Ubuntu, Debian and Fedora. I have even run Windows XP in a Virtual Machine inside Ubuntu. The best thing about Linux is that it is like ice cream; it comes in many different flavours and serving sizes too, depending on the age of the hardware. Both my desktop and laptop are running Debian 13. This blog and the video editing are all done on Linux machines.
