I’m not touching it with a long stick until someone does some proper security analysis on it
How would that happen? It’s proprietary software, we don’t have access to the source code. And that’s the whole point. We can’t verify what it does and we can’t modify it.
The alternative is Free/Libre Software. That’s what Lemmy is, Jerboa and many others. Their authors publish the source code and let their users study it, modify it and distribute it. Because they are not trying to hide anything from us. That’s the ethical way to make software.
Perhaps you are right, but it’s way more difficult, takes a lot of time and requires a different set of skills. If there is spyware in it, it would be illegal to remove it and distribute a patch for other users. So even if you find something, there is not much you can do about it.
It’s not very practical to add spyware into Libre Software though, because it wouldn’t be hard to find and it would be very easy for users to remove it.
How would that happen? It’s proprietary software, we don’t have access to the source code. And that’s the whole point. We can’t verify what it does and we can’t modify it.
The alternative is Free/Libre Software. That’s what Lemmy is, Jerboa and many others. Their authors publish the source code and let their users study it, modify it and distribute it. Because they are not trying to hide anything from us. That’s the ethical way to make software.
Security analysis doesn’t require the source code. TikTok was repeatedly analyzed without it being open source.
Perhaps you are right, but it’s way more difficult, takes a lot of time and requires a different set of skills. If there is spyware in it, it would be illegal to remove it and distribute a patch for other users. So even if you find something, there is not much you can do about it.
It’s not very practical to add spyware into Libre Software though, because it wouldn’t be hard to find and it would be very easy for users to remove it.