252 lines
13 KiB
HTML
252 lines
13 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
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<html>
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<version>2</version>
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<head>
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<title>Free Your Android!</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>Free Your Android!</h1>
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<div id="introduction">
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<div class="image" id="hello-free-droid">
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<img src="/activities/android/robot.png" alt="Liberated Android Robot"/>
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</div>
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<p>
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Android is a <a href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/android-and-users-freedom.html" title="Android and Users' Freedom">partially free</a> operating system
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developed mainly by Google. Unfortunately, the drivers for most
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devices and most applications from the "market" are not
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<a href="/freesoftware/freesoftware.html" title="What is Free Software?">free (as in free speech, not as in no cost)</a>.
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They frequently work against the interest of the users,
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spy on them, and sometimes cannot even be removed.
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</p>
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<p>
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This campaign can help you to <strong>regain control</strong>
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of your Android device and your data. We collect information about
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running an Android system as free as possible and try to coordinate
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the efforts in this area.
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</p>
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</div>
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<p>
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Do you want a mobile device that is really yours when you buy it?
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Do you want a mobile device that does not spy on you and hand over your data to big corporations?
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Then read on!
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</p>
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<div id="subpages">
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<div class="half">
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<h2 class="h3"><a href="/activities/android/locked_down.html">Why Your Phone Isn’t as Free as Your PC</a></h2>
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<p>
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If your phone is just a computer, then why is it so much harder to install
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Free Software on it? Learn about the differences between your phone and your
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PC and how these differences affect your freedom.
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</p>
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<div class="action"><a href="/activities/android/locked_down.html">Locked Down</a></div>
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</div>
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<div class="half">
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<h2 class="h3"><a href="/activities/android/liberate.html">Liberate Your Device</a></h2>
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<p>
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Learn how to liberate your device and how to regain control of your data
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by switching to a free Android operating system with free (as in freedom) apps.
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We have collected information to help you regain control.
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</p>
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<div class="action"><a href="/activities/android/liberate.html">Regain Control</a></div>
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</div>
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<div class="half last">
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<h2 class="h3"><a href="/activities/android/help.html">Help Making Liberation Effortless</a></h2>
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<p>
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Liberating devices should be effortless, so that everybody can enjoy freedom.
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There are many ways you can help to achieve this goal,
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even if you don't know how to program.
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</p>
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<div class="action"><a href="/activities/android/help.html">Contribute</a></div>
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</div>
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</div>
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<h2 class="h3" style="clear:both;" id="Why">Why Your Mobile Device Needs To Be Free</h2>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#ReasonFreedom">Freedom and Control</a></li>
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<li><a href="#ReasonPrivacy">Privacy</a></li>
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<li><a href="#ReasonSustainability">Sustainability</a></li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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Mobile devices are small computers that we carry around all the time.
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They know our current location and contain private pictures. We use
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them to communicate with our friends, our family and maybe our secret
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love. They also provide access to the internet and have built-in
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cameras and microphones. Being such powerful tools, they can bring great
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risks to privacy, but at the same time we can achieve great things
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with them: it depends on who controls them.
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</p>
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<h3 id="ReasonFreedom">Freedom and Control</h3>
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<p>
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Most mobile devices are not controlled by their users, but by the manufacturer
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and the operator. The software that runs on them is not Free Software.
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Even Android phones ship with non-free software and proprietary add-ons
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that often work against the interest of the user. Software
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updates are only made available as long as the manufacturer still has a
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commercial interest in your device. The applications (apps) available
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from the official market are commonly non-free. Nobody is
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allowed to study how they work and what they really do on your phone.
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Sometimes they just don't work exactly as you want, but oftentimes they
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even contain malicious features.
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</p>
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<p>
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Running exclusively Free Software on your device puts you in full control.
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Even though you may not have the skills to directly exercise all of your freedoms,
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you will benefit from a vibrant community that can do it together.
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</p>
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<h3 id="ReasonPrivacy">Privacy</h3>
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<p>
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Our mobile devices contain more personal information than most private
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diaries. But proprietary systems, even most Android phones, are designed
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to hand over this data to companies like Google or Apple. Most
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users do not have full control over the personal data on their device.
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Convenient solutions for synchronisation and data backup
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trick more and more people into storing all their data on centralised
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servers run by some profit-driven corporation. These are usually based in the US
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and are required to hand your data over to the US government on mere request.
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Whoever has personal information about us is able to manipulate us.
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Therefore, non-free devices are a threat to democracy and to our society.
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</p>
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<p>
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Privacy is one of the most important reasons to support Free Software.
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Proprietary add-ons like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrier_IQ">Carrier IQ</a> spy on
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smartphone users without their knowledge. Many apps from the market
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contain malicious features. They read your private data, such as
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<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/feb/15/apple-iphone-address-book-privacy" title="Apple faces US inquiry over iPhone address book privacy">your address book,</a>
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and "phone home", or they use
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<a href="https://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/mobile/android.html#overview">Google Analytics</a>
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to send data to Google. These are just a few examples out of many that have been
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discovered so far. The lack of freedom impedes independent inspection
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and secret spy features only become known by accident.
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</p>
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<p>
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Most smartphones require you to connect and identify yourself to a
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centralised server before you can use them properly. Users have to trust
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the server without knowing what information is stored and how it is
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processed or related to other data. A phone running only Free Software
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does not require you to provide data to an untrustworthy company or
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pressure you to do so – at least this is very unlikely, as the
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software's actions would be obvious and the community would be able to
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develop an alternative version. The convenience of "value-added"
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services that are often coupled with such connections can be provided
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using Free Software as well. This keeps you in control of your personal
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data. Your diary remains in your possession. You can have your cake and
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eat it too.
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</p>
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<h3 id="ReasonSustainability">Sustainability</h3>
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<p>
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Planned obsolescence is a serious problem that has both financial and environmental drawbacks. Every year,
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manufacturers produce 1.5 billion smartphones worldwide - and unfortunately, probably just as many are
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thrown away after what is usually a far too short hardware lifespan. E-waste increases every year.
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The energy required to produce the devices is extremely high, and the manufacturing and supply chain spans
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the globe several times. With Free Software, we address the problem by extending the hardware lifespan of
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phones and Android devices in particular!
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Learn <a href="/activities/android/sustainability.html">more about software sustainability on phones</a> and
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<a href="/freesoftware/sustainability/sustainability.html">about sustainability of Free Software</a>.
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</p>
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<h2 class="h3" id="discovering-free-software">Discovering the world of Free Software</h2>
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<p>
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<strong>Free Software is what runs most of our digital infrastructure and our devices.</strong> The Internet
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heavily relies on the innovations and accessibility of Free Software. And during the last decade it also
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became of ever growing importance and availability on your phone.
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</p>
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<p>
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<strong>Free Software comes with a lot of benefits.</strong> Free Software is available and can be used,
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studied, shared, and improved by anyone at any time. No restrictions involved. This is one of its core
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characteristics that in practice also helps to extend the usage lifetime of electronic devices - as <a href="/freesoftware/sustainability/sustainability.html#hardware-production-and-usage-times">outlined in
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our study</a>. And Free Software is also good for your privacy. It helps you to keep control over your data.
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And, as you can see on this page, it also helps you to reduce e-waste and to upcycle your phone.
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</p>
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<h3 id="liberating-your-devices">Liberating your devices</h3>
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<p>
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Installing a completely different operating system in your original Android phone is liberating and reusing
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your device in one. Repurposing our devices this way is a practice that modern societies should be able to
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practise for all devices, helping us to live more freely in a more sustainable digital society.
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</p>
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<p>
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Remember that your phone is a general purpose computer. With the legal right and technical empowerment to
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install any operating system that fits, you can reuse your phone not only as a phone but also for example as
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a connected device in your home environment, just as in any other setting of interconnected devices. And
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repurposing of our devices should not only be true for phones, but for any device with Internet access. That
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is why the FSFE demands the <a href="/freesoftware/sustainability/sustainability.html#general-purpose-computers">right to use
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alternative operating systems and software</a> on any device. This would enable us to make full use of our
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hardware and to repurpose and reuse our resources in a sustainable way.
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</p>
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<h2 class="h3">Other related initiatives</h2>
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<p>
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Even though this campaign is about Android, there are other
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initiatives that make it possible to use small mobile computers with
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(mostly) Free Software. Due to the driver situation of mobile
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hardware, none of these initiatives really can run such machines in
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freedom. Non-free drivers and firmware are needed for many peripherals
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to work.
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</p>
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<p>
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On our wiki, we collect
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<a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/Android/OtherInitiatives">other initiatives</a>.
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Please help us to maintain this list.
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</p>
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<h2 class="h3">Join the community or ask questions.</h2>
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<p>
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If you have any questions about this campaign or have questions on liberating your phone,
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just ask the community. Send an email <a href="mailto:android@lists.fsfe.org">to our mailing list</a>.
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Everybody interested in the campaign is
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<a href="https://lists.fsfe.org/postorius/lists/android.lists.fsfe.org">subscribed</a> there and is insterested in exchanging knowledge.
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</p>
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<p>
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For general information about our work that is not related to the "Free Your Android" campaign,
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please use <a href="/about/contact.html">the general contact page</a>.
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</p>
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<h2 class="h3">Participating Organisations</h2>
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<p>
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<div class="image center">
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<a href="https://digitalcourage.de"><img src="/activities/android/DC.png" alt="digitalcourage" title="digitalcourage"/></a>
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<a href="http://ansol.org/"><img src="/activities/android/ansol.png" alt="Associação Nacional para o Software Livre" title="Associação Nacional para o Software Livre"/></a>
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</div>
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</p>
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</body>
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<description>Regain control of your Android device and your data: this campaign is about freedom, control and privacy.</description>
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<legal type="cc-license">
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<license>http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/</license>
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<notice>Portions of this page are
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modifications based on work created and shared by Google and
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used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 3.0
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Attribution License. Android is a trademark of Google Inc.</notice>
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</legal>
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<translator/>
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</html>
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<!--
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Local Variables: ***
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mode: xml ***
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End: ***
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-->
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