Do you trust Russian purchased platforms and apps?

5 points·Overtonwindow··7 comments

I was reminded today of ICQ, so I went over to download it. As it asked to download from a .ru domain I stopped and was a little surprised. ICQ was sold to a Russian company. So that got me to thinking: ICQ, Livejournal, how many other internet properties have been sold to Russian firms, and wold you trust them still?

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I have just as much trust in Russian apps as I have in U.S. apps - which is none.

I suppose the corollary here is: Would you still trust software created by or sold to American firms?

Suffice to say that judging all companies in a certain country by the actions of their government would leave us in a very strange position indeed.

... unless the government is known for killing its citizens who speak out against it.

That is not even remotely a trait unique to Russia.

So, because they aren’t the only ones doing it we should consider it a norm and live with it. Shouldn’t we stop putting people in jail for murder then?

Certainly more suspicious than I used to be, in the wake of 2016. As much as I distrust Facebook and Twitter, it's hard to suggest they have a friendly relationship with congress or the intelligence community. Kaspersky is a far more insidious example - software with tendrils deep into our most sensitive data, hiding behind a significant degree of plausible deniability while maintaining problematic connections to the FSB.

After the recent political interference, I'm hesitant to trust them.

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