Trusted Computing

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Trusted Computing, sometimes called "Treacherous Computing" is the name of the initiative of a joint effort of multiple companies to add hardware level restrictions and restrict user ownership and freedom on multiple various types of computers and devices, including, but not limited to: Computers, desktops and notebooks, single board computers, PDAs, smartphones, tablets, media players, game consoles, digital video recorders, home theater systems, smart televisions, streaming boxes, pretty much anything with a printed circuit board and a digital purpose.

How it works

Trusted Computing usually consists of both hardware and software restrictions, From a locked down restricted operating system to a locked down restricted bios and or firmware to hardware level backdoors in the CPU, SOC, motherboard, to a physical chip known as a "Trusted Platform Module", "TPM" for short. A TPM enabled machine will RESTRICT and will NOT allow certain user actions.

Why it is a problem

One problem is user ownership and freedom. Depending on the device, various user actions may be restricted and or completely prohibited. Installing and using third party and or alternative software from operating systems to applications may be restricted and or completely impossible! Modifying certain system settings may be restricted and or completely impossible! Also user loss if ownership over data including files and documents is an issue!

Another problem is privacy and security. Because of hardware and software level backdoor, an affected system is vulnerable to remote tampering, sabotage and attack, both when the machine is on and off! Data including files and documents can be edited, encrypted, deleted without the user's consent nor knowledge! System settings can be edited without the user's consent nor knowledge!

Examples

Some notable examples include:

Palladium

Trusted Computing Module TPM and TPM 2.0

Almost every smartphone and tablet both Android

Amazon Kindle and Kindle Fire

Apple iPod

Microsoft Zune

Sony PlayStation line of consoles

Microsoft Xbox line if consoles

Intel Management Engine

AMD Platform Security Processor

Secureboot

Pluton

Walled gardens

Windows 10

Windows 11

MacOS

Tesla Motors Automobiles

John Deere Tractors

References

https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/drm.html

https://www.fsf.org/news/treacherous.html

https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/can-you-trust.html

https://www.slashgear.com/windows-11-tpm-2-0-could-affect-other-software-as-well-05689649/

https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/drm-carroll

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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_Computing

https://www.defectivebydesign.org/what_is_drm

https://www.fsf.org/news/treacherous.html

https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/campaigns/secure-boot-vs-restricted-boo

https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/campaigns/secure-boot-vs-restricted-boot

https://www.fsf.org/blogs/sysadmin/the-management-engine-an-attack-on-computer-users-freedom

https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/android-and-users-freedom.html

https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/loyal-computers.html

https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/proprietary.html

https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/fight-to-repair

https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/tivoization.html

https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/01/ftc-states-sue-deere-company-protect-farmers-unfair-corporate-tactics-high-repair-costs

https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/its-official-cars-are-the-worst-product-category-we-have-ever-reviewed-for-privacy/

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Trusted_Platform_Module

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Trusted_Platform_Module

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/04/tesla-sued-after-report-that-workers-shared-invasive-images-from-car-cameras/

https://replicant.us/

http://www.trustedcomputinggroup.org/

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000008927/software/chipset-software.html

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