In this modern, technology driven world, the need for security and privacy is growing continuously. Major corporations whose software and systems are proprietary hide their coding and have frequently been found to be gathering and selling the information of end users. Anyone using their systems is then at risk of identity fraud, and other attacks of a malicious nature.

Personal data is being continuously and extensively collected for the purposes of machine learning, mathematical modeling, and other purposes. The data is permanently stored and frequently shared, which impacts everyone around the globe.

The collection of personal data is being used against end users. Big Tech companies desire to research and profile users identities and store them in their database systems. All the online activities: including bills, shopping records, geographical locations, political opinions, individual biological information and many other types of data which might be of interest is mined and stored by machine learning systems. Due to this, they are learning users’ behaviours, how they think, what they search for, what they buy, and more. The mathematical modeling systems they are using have built confidence that they can predict and impact the behaviours and patterns of users.

There is no doubt that personal data has become a new critical resource, similar to the production of crude oil in the 20th century. It has produced a new type of monopoly. It won’t be long before small and medium businesses and many professions will begin to disappear and be replaced by products of these systems.

Edward Snowden, was one of the first to whisper and expose the issue in the earlier 2010s.

PRISM began in 2007 in the wake of the passage of the Protect America Act under the Bush Administration.[10][11] The program is operated under the supervision of the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA Court, or FISC) pursuant to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).[12] Its existence was leaked six years later by NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who warned that the extent of mass data collection was far greater than the public knew and included what he characterized as “dangerous” and “criminal” activities.[13] The disclosures were published by The Guardian and The Washington Post on June 6, 2013. Subsequent documents have demonstrated a financial arrangement between the NSA’s Special Source Operations (SSO) division and PRISM partners in the millions of dollars.[14]

Wikipedia, PRISM (surveillance program)

Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software that is both free software and open-source software[a] where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source code is openly shared so that people are encouraged to voluntarily improve the design of the software.[3] This is in contrast to proprietary software, where the software is under restrictive copyright licensing and the source code is usually hidden from the users.

FOSS maintains the software user’s civil liberty rights (see the Four Essential Freedoms, below). Other benefits of using FOSS can include decreased software costs, increased security and stability (especially in regard to malware), protecting privacy, education, and giving users more control over their own hardware. Free and open-source operating systems such as Linux and descendants of BSD are widely utilized today, powering millions of servers, desktops, smartphones (e.g., Android), and other devices.[4][5] Free-software licenses and open-source licenses are used by many software packages. The free-software movement and the open-source software movement are online social movements behind widespread production and adoption of FOSS, with the former preferring to use the terms FLOSS or free/libre.

Wikipedia, Free and open-source software

Free and Open-Source software (FOSS) has been proven to be durable, useful and secure across the span of its lifetime. It has become the fundamental piece for pivotal IT infrastructure and services for many Internet companies, enterprises, banks, and governments. In the present, FOSS is widely used by many large scale IT projects globally. In brief, Free & Open-source software respects people’s freedom, privacy far more than Proprietary software (which typically use hidden/closed coding in its software). This therefore makes Free & Open source software superior to proprietary software in many ways: users can see, inspect code before installing (provided they understand it), and FOSS code is provided freely online and is thus viewed, modified and analyzed by multiple coders and other sources to verify its integrity.

The core members of Niagara Linux technical team respect data privacy-first and foremost. We view this as a golden standard of our business practice. By default, we offer the use of private cloud options and other Open-Source platforms to save and backup client data. We try to place greater effort on open source software and secure solutions while avoiding and minimizing third-party manufacturers access to it. Our senior team member has 20 years of experiences in the I.T. industry, specialized in various Linux & open-source systems and can design and implement complex I.T systems for larger IT projects.

We strongly oppose Internet Content Censorship and Public Opinion Control from the Big Tech companies. We believe digital privacy is a basic human right, which should be protected and free of censorship, manipulation, and massive surveillance by BigTech companies, legacy media companies, and anyone else.

We understand Free & Open-Source software is not always perfect for all IT projects, nor are proprietary or closed source software always the best solution. To this end, we do offer and develop hybrid solutions combining open and closed code software to meet needs when required.

The model and use of open-source software and its ecosystem gives us enough flexibilities, openness, transparency, and resources to develop our own solutions instead of relying solely on those recommended or provided by manufacturers.