Stallman advocates free software - meaning the user is free to examine the source code, alter it and redistribute it as he  wishes. If used free software, users would have the freedom to prevent governments and other organizations from tracking them, Stallman argues. None of the popular mobile operating systems, including and , meet his criteria.

Let's take a look at some of the online debate spurred by Stallman's theory:

Stallman is right:

"RMS is seen as crying wolf, but many of his weirdest predictions have come true," writes user Compaqt on Slashdot. "We're already there with Amazon's actions regarding remote Kindle book manipulation."

"Any device on the net can be used and is used as a tracking device," an anonymous on Networkworld.com writes. "Big brother is already listening in. The NSA [National Agency] filters everything on the Internet right now. If you really don't want to be tracked, then kill your net connection and get another identity."