Most people who care about privacy focus on their operating system. Linux over Windows. open source over proprietary.
That's good. it's also not enough.
Here's what's running below your OS on almost every Intel computer made since 2006:
The Intel Management Engine is a separate processor inside your chipset running its own closed-source operating system called Minix 3. It has direct access to your RAM, storage, network, and peripherals. it runs at Ring -3 below your kernel, below your hypervisor, below everything your OS can see or control. it stays active even when your computer is powered off as long as it's plugged in.
You cannot audit it. you cannot disable it through normal means. You cannot detect what it's doing from inside your OS.
The EFF called it a security hazard in 2017. The Libreboot project said it has complete access to and control over your PC, including the ability to track keystrokes, capture screen images, and examine all running applications.
Intel confirmed multiple vulnerabilities in ME in 2017 affecting 6th through 8th generation Core processors, Xeon, and Atom chips. Researchers demonstrated it could be used to inject rootkits remotely via the network interface.
The only known method to fully disable it was discovered by Positive Technologies. They found a hidden bit in the firmware labeled 'HAP enable' part of an NSA program called High Assurance Platform.
The NSA has a switch to disable Intel ME.
you don't.
if you want hardware that doesn't include ME: AMD processors do not have the same implementation. Purism builds laptops with ME neutralized. The Libreboot project has a list of hardware that can run without proprietary firmware.
Your threat model determines how far down this rabbit hole you need to go.
But you should know the rabbit hole exists.
This is what happens when iron is heated above its Curie Point (770 °C)
At around 770 °C, iron (Fe) reaches its Curie point, which is the critical temperature at which it transitions between the ferromagnetic and paramagnetic states.
Below this temperature (770 °C ≈ 1043 K), the atomic magnetic moments in iron align within regions called magnetic domains, producing strong and persistent magnetism.
When iron is heated above the Curie point, thermal agitation disrupts this alignment, and the material loses its ferromagnetic properties and becomes paramagnetic.
Iron is a classic example used to illustrate the Curie point, but other ferromagnetic materials have different thresholds.
Cobalt transitions at around 1100 °C, while nickel transitions at around 350 °C.
The phenomenon was first described by Pierre Curie in 1895. He showed that certain materials lose their spontaneous magnetization when heated beyond a specific temperature, a behavior that is now known as the Curie effect.
This temperature threshold is important in practical engineering. For example, the iron cores in soldering irons must remain below their Curie point to maintain stable magnetic performance.
In magneto-optical storage, materials are temporarily heated above their Curie temperature to erase or rewrite data by suppressing their magnetism.
Magnus effect model aircraft are experimental and hobbyist-built remote-controlled (R/C) planes that use spinning cylinders, or rotors, instead of traditional wings to generate lift.
ELON: IT’S EASY TO GET TO PRETTY GOOD SELF-DRIVING, BUT INSANELY HARD TO GET TO GREAT
Most companies are celebrating mediocrity, and no one wants to admit the last 10% of autonomy is where all the dead bodies and lawsuits live.
Look around - every tech demo is a highway cruise with ambient music and a guy in a hoodie pretending to nap. Great, the car stayed in its lane on I-5. But ask it to navigate a chaotic school zone in the rain and suddenly your $80,000 robo-chauffeur starts begging for human help like a nervous teen on their first driving test.
Everyone talks like autonomy is a checklist. Adaptive cruise? Check. Lane assist? Check. Self-parking? Check. Cool, we’re done here. But the brutal truth is, autonomy isn’t additive - it’s exponential. The moment you stop holding the wheel, everything becomes the edge case.
The weird light reflection that makes the system think a semi is a cloud. The jaywalker in a Halloween costume. The guy in the motorized wheelchair towing a trash can across four lanes. Real life is a minefield of chaos, and no amount of “95% accurate” saves you from the one time it isn’t.
Other manufacturers keep treating “full autonomy” like it’s 5 updates away. They don’t realize they’re asking an AI to do what humans barely manage: instant decision-making in an unpredictable world, with zero second chances. It’s not just about teaching a car to drive. It’s teaching it to not kill you, no matter what weird, absurd, once-in-a-decade scenario just rolled out of the parking lot.
The man behind the digital ID push is Larry Ellison, owner of Oracle, CBS, CNN, and, soon, TikTok. He wants data centralization and total surveillance. "Citizens will be on their best behavior because we're constantly watching & recording everything that's going on." Terrifying.
Today’s youth generation is the largest in history—nearly 2 billion people.
Their choices will define demographic futures on #WPD2025.
Are we amplifying their voices?
#Communityvoices#Youthautonomy
Youth voices aren’t just important they’re essential.
This #WorldPopulationDay2025, we spotlight freedom, choice, and the power of youth to shape the future.
📅 12 July | 8PM EAT
🎤 TikTok Live:
You can not afford to miss this.
@SautiZetu254@SautiBoraInit@QwomenHRDs
I can finally map @NBA player's position from the camera perspective onto the court map
it's still a bit shaky... I'll smooth it out later
it's time to detect shooting motions and mark the shot location!
some of the code has already been migrated to: https://t.co/VK0RQFWud1
Here’s how President Nayib Bukele solves corruption in El Salvador.
He gathered the entire Executive Branch together for a meeting and told them that they are currently under investigation for corruption.
This is actually an extraordinary admission to make for a US Vice President https://t.co/VXRNYuVFdc
Vance explains that "the idea of globalization was that rich countries would move further up the value chain while the poor countries made the simpler things."
But he laments that it didn't quite work out this way: as he explains it turns out that poor countries (mostly China) didn't want to just remain cheap labor forever and started moving up the value chain themselves. Which is why, according to him, globalization was a failure.
Meaning that the objective of globalization wasn't to reduce global inequalities but very much to maintain them, to institute a system of permanent economic hierarchy where rich countries would maintain their hold over the most profitable sectors while relegating poor countries to perpetual subordination in lower-value production.
This is basically all you need to know to explain 90% of U.S. foreign policy these past few years: colonial thinking is alive and well, and America's shift of strategy in recent years - away from the previous "Washington Consensus" of "free" markets towards a much more overt attempt to contain and restrict China's development - stems precisely from this mindset.
From semiconductor export controls to investment restrictions, these policies aren't about 'national security' in any genuine sense - they're about trying to preserve a global economic order where, simply put, poorer nations know their assigned place and stay there. At the very core, that's the "China threat": a China that stepped out of the economic lane assigned to it by the West.
It's deeply ironic when you think of it: a global game allegedly designed to "spread market principles" worldwide is being abandoned precisely because it worked too well. When China succeeded better than expected, the response wasn't to celebrate the validation of the game's effectiveness but to change its rules. Precisely because the real unspoken game - but now clearly stated by the U.S. Vice President - was to maintain global inequality, not eliminate it.
All in all, in case they hadn't yet gotten the memo, this sends a very clear message to the developing world: economic development will require challenging a U.S.-dominated economic order that views their advancement as a threat rather than a success. Which incidentally is why Vance's words might actually help accelerate the very redistribution of global economic power he laments, pushing more nations to recognize that genuine development requires strategic independence from a system intended to keep them in their place.