It has been clear for a while that certain providers and services need to be regulated as utilities - Microsoft, Google, Apple, Visa, Mastercard, and soon Openai and Anthropic.

It should be illegal for these companies, just like utilities, to deny service to anyone or any entity in good standing for dues.

There is little hope for getting this through in the US where most politicians of any stripe hate the public, and the ones that don't have hardly any power. But it might be possible to do this in the EU.

Then, we non-EU folks need to apply for Estonian e-residency [1] which may get us EU regulatory coverage.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Residency_of_Estonia

Now this is even more alarming! Wireguard's creator has their Microsoft account suspended...

<Tin foil hat on> Microsoft doesn't want to allow software that would allow the user to shield themselves, either by totally encrypting a drive, or by encrypting their network traffic! </Tin foil hat on>

I am astounded that the maintainer and inventor of Wireguard is in this position.

Microsoft even supports Wireguard in Azure Kubernetes Service.

Encouraged by this thread, I tweeted about it: https://x.com/EdgeSecurity/status/2041872931576299888

The other day I tried to create a Github account and was repeatedly told I am fraudulent. Nothing else. Try again later, it says.

This is the same thing that's happened every time I've tried to have a Microsoft account. I don't think Microsoft wants to have customers who aren't rich.

I tried to set up a partner account for driver signing last year (as a business entity) and it already seemed basically impossible. I think they're getting ready to just simply not allow it at all.

This is stupid. If Microsoft wants people to stop writing kernel drivers, that's potentially doable (we just need sufficient user mode driver equivalents...) but not doing that and also shortening the list of who can sign kernel drivers down to some elite group of grandfathered companies and individuals is the worst possible outcome.

But at this point I almost wish they didn't fix it, just to drive home the point harder to users how little they really own their computer and OS anymore.

Will send some emails.

You said:

"Currently undergoing some sort of 60 days appeals process, but who knows."

.. and the op said:

"I have tried to contact Microsoft through various channels but I have only received automated replies and bots. I was unable to reach a human."

... which is a roundabout way of saying you did not spend lawyer hours and you did not contact them through channels that they cannot ignore: registered, physical mail, from a lawyer.

I'm sorry for these difficulties, truly, but don't tell me you can't reach a human when you most definitely can reach a human. From my own experience with an organization at least as calloused and indifferent as MS[1], as soon as I sent a real, legal communication I had real live humans lining up to talk to me.

[1] Pacific Gas and Electric

Y'all need to form an alliance or something, get some press coverage (wireguard, veracrypt, libreoffice)

Surprised to see you here. Thanks for all your hard work.

Windows users are in a tough spot, but with the dawn of Copilot, nobody should be surprised. Frankly, those who remain with Windows after this latest betrayal have chosen their fate.

Has your Apple account been suspended for the last few years?

[flagged]

I think it’s intentional, those encryption (at rest/transit) applications are outside of MS control and you can assume outside of potential backdoors by three letters agencies, bitlocker vs veracrypt? Of course bitlocker is favorable from their perspective.

I wouldn’t be surprised if NSA already had a list of these applications and the strategies on how to cripple them or worse, compromise them.

> what if there were some critical RCE in WireGuard, being exploited in the wild, and I needed to update users immediately?

Honestly, anyone still using Windows probably deserves it.