Weekly wrap-up: Stallman says surveillance is social pollution, good week for civic geeks, and more

Surveillance as “social pollution.” In an essay published this week on Wired.com, Richard Stallman eloquently advocates for reducing the level of general surveillance in our society, arguing that information, once collected, will be misused. Not surprisingly, the president of the Free Software Foundation argues that using free/libre software is the first step we can take to control our digital lives, and that non-free software cannot be trusted. Among the changes Stallman advocates for are explicit legal protection for whistleblowers and stopping the collection of dossiers on everyone.