Google Photos and Apple iCloud alternative Ente is now fully open-source, having gotten rid of the last proprietary part of its service, the server code, which is now also open.
“Secrets keep you sick” – as the saying goes. In terms of giant tech companies keeping their “code secret” – i.e., the proprietary model – it often results in allowing clearly malicious actors to hack it, but also potentially gives access to various official agencies that have no legal business having this access.
We say “potentially” – because that is the essence of closed source. The user just does not know what’s going on.
Ente’s pitch as the alternative to this is privacy and security: other than the licensing, there is, prominently, end-to-end encryption offered to subscribers.
A lot of open source projects struggle with ways to monetize the value they offer to the world, and this one has opted for paid tiers – but also a one-year free trial.
And should anyone need a reminder of why closed source – and/or Big Tech platforms – controlling their digital content stored “in the cloud” is a bad thing, there’s a simple way to sum it up: mass surveillance – bad security.
With giant platforms, beholden not only to their bottom lines and shareholders, but, as it has been coming to light recently, also governments, the interest of the user tends to rank last.
Many alternatives are therefore springing up, attempting to fill the void between this and the right of law-abiding citizens to have their content – in essence, possessions – protected from, for example, unlawful search.
But equally, end-to-end encryption keeps the “classic bad guys” – hackers, other criminals, and the like – at bay.
Ente developers, no doubt understanding this juncture in the history of the internet and the way people use apps and services, in the past made an effort to make its app open-source, but the server-side code was still closed.
Now that has changed for the better and the cloud storage service’s code is fully available to users, other developers, researchers – anyone, to read, audit, and build upon.
(Your turn now, Telegram /s)
