Dataveillance

Introduction

We contribute to the collection of our personal details every time we use a debit or credit card, a cell phone, when we go to the doctor, pay our utility bills and taxes, or go online (Stalder 2002). (For a comprehensive list of actions that leave a trail see Gandy 1996 p. 139).
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Free Software

Free and Software – definitions.

The fact that the word free in english has more than one meaning makes a preliminary explanation of what ‘free software’ means necessary.

The ‘free’ in free software refers to freedom more than to price (Winstanley, 2003). The Free Software Foundation, founded by Richard Stallman in 1985, refers to four freedoms: freedom to use, to distribute, to examine, and to modify the software. That is the ‘trade mark’, as there are other programs that are freely available, but are not free to examine and modify.
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