Libra is the last thing we need. Big tech’s use of our data is already worrying, says Guardian columnist John Harris

Popular novels, technical tomes and self-published books are pirated and sold on Amazon. That may actually be helping the company extend its grip on the book business.

Google Maps is filled with false business addresses created by firms pretending to be nearby. Some are fibbing to get your business. Others are posted by predators seeing what they can take.

It's possible to purchase Lenovo's high-performance ThinkPad systems with Ubuntu shipped from the factory, starting with 2019 models.

An employee with "ill-intention" at Desjardins Group collected information about nearly three million people and businesses and shared it with people outside the Quebec-based financial institution, officials revealed Thursday.

Riviera Beach, Fla., authorized its insurer to pay a Bitcoin ransom to hackers who have paralyzed the city’s computer systems for three weeks.

“The whole premise of Facebook is to render not private” your activity, said company lawyer, fighting off lawsuits over Cambridge Analytica data collection.

Two lawsuits are seeking class-action status, alleging that Amazon records children and stores their voiceprints indefinitely.

As you shop, “beacons” are watching you, using hidden technology in your phone.

My wife got a box of Enfamil Fedexed to our door as a promotion on what would have been the due date of our baby. Unfortunately, she miscarried at 3 months.

They knew this because marketers get near real-time access to prescriptions, hospital admissions and other things.

You should care because your information will be sold or traded, and behaviors can be correlated against medical and other outcomes.

Are you a divorced dad who has moved within 90 days and play daily fantasy sports? I can buy a list that will find you for $250. You are a risk for opioid addiction and may get denied service in the future for medical issues. Or you may attract advertising tailored to get you to gamble or drink more, when you are at your most vulnerable.

The Microsoft Alternatives project (MAlt) started a year ago to mitigate anticipated software license fee increases. MAlt’s objective is to put us back in control using open software. It is now time to present more widely this project and to explain how it will shape our computing environment.

Background

Over the years, CERN’s activities and services have increasingly relied on commercial software and solutions to deliver core functionalities, often leveraged by advantageous financial conditions based on the recognition of CERN’s status as an academic, non-profit or research institute. Once installed, well-spread and heavily used, the leverage used to attract CERN service managers to the commercial solutions tends to disappear and be replaced by licensing schemes and business models tuned for the private sector.

Given the collaborative nature of CERN and its wide community, a high number of licenses are required to deliver services to everyone, and when traditional business models on a per-user basis are applied, the costs per product can be huge and become unaffordable in the long term.

A prime example is that CERN has enjoyed special conditions for the use of Microsoft products for the last 20 years, by virtue of its status as an “academic institution”. However, recently, the company has decided to revoke CERN’s academic status, a measure that took effect at the end of the previous contract in March 2019, replaced by a new contract based on user numbers, increasing the license costs by more than a factor of ten. Although CERN has negotiated a ramp-up profile over ten years to give the necessary time to adapt, such costs are not sustainable.

Anticipating this situation, the IT department created the Microsoft Alternatives project, MAlt, a year ago.

MAlt’s objective

The initial objective was to investigate the migration from commercial software products (Microsoft and others) to open-source solutions, so as to minimise CERN’s exposure to the risks of unsustainable commercial conditions. By doing so, the laboratory is playing a pioneering role among public research institutions, most of whom have recently been faced with the same dilemma. 

MAlt is a multi-year effort and it will now enter a new phase with the first migrations.

The project’s principles of engagement are to:

Deliver the same service to every category of CERN personnel
Avoid vendor lock-in to decrease risk and dependency
Keep hands on the data
Address the common use-cases

Coming in 2019

The first major change coming is a pilot mail Service for the IT department and volunteers this summer, followed by the start of CERN-wide migration. In parallel, some Skype for Business clients and analogue phones will migrate to a softphone telephony pilot.

Many other products and services are being worked on: evaluations of alternative solutions for various software packages used for IT core services, prototypes and pilots will emerge along the course of the next few years.

How will MAlt impact you and how to contribute?

You will find all the details and progress on the project site and more particularly the list of products addressed in the project. 

The new computing newsletter blog will communicate on general items, and in addition, a general presentation will be provided in the Main Auditorium on 10 September at 2.30 p.m.

Needless to say, isolated initiatives will waste effort and resources. Instead, if you or your team are willing to participate, if you have ideas, the best way is to join the coordinated Microsoft Alternatives effort by checking the project site and contributing to the discussion channel. 

Interesting times ahead! While the Microsoft Alternatives project is ambitious, it’s also a unique opportunity for CERN to demonstrate that building core services can be done without vendor and data lock-in, that the next generation of services can be tailored to the community’s needs and finally that CERN can inspire its partners by collaborating around a new range of products. 

Follow the project, get details, join: cern.ch/malt

Facebook uncovered emails that appear to show CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s connection to potentially problematic privacy practices at the company.

No, Google won’t stop reading your emails. And you may not actually want it to. The search giant introduced a significant change to the way it treats its users’ emails Friday, announcing that…

It used a Shazam-like technology to identify soccer games

Slate’s Use of Your Data

How one small business owner flipped the online review ecosystem on its head.

Updated: The data leak impacted Tech Data’s client servers, SAP systems, and more.