As every new day approaches, it dawns on me more and more that the walls are closing in on digital sovereignty, and the cavalry isn’t coming.
Recent revelations about major open source organizations pledging fealty to the United Nations—including the Linux Foundation, GNOME Foundation, and others—represent the final capture of what should have been our last line of defense. These organizations, already compromised by Big Tech funding and political activism, have now formally committed to serve UN objectives through their “Open Source Principles.”
This is about the complete encirclement of digital sovereignty, not just software and hardware.
Four-Front War
Corporate Surveillance: As we’ve documented extensively, your Android device isn’t yours—it’s Google’s surveillance apparatus in your pocket. iOS isn’t better; it’s Apple’s walled garden designed to extract maximum data while maintaining the illusion of privacy. Windows is even worse. The solution exists (GrapheneOS on Pixel hardware and Linux on PCs), but Big Tech controls the narrative and the distribution channels.
Government Overreach: Digital ID systems are being rolled out globally under the guise of convenience and security. These aren’t optional—they’re designed to become mandatory infrastructure for participation in the digital economy. Once implemented, they become the ultimate tool for social control, capable of cutting off dissidents from banking, travel, and commerce with the flip of a switch.
Ideological Capture: Now even the open source community—traditionally the refuge for those seeking alternatives—has been captured. When the Linux Foundation pledges to support UN objectives and promote “RISE” frameworks (systematic discrimination disguised as inclusion), we’ve lost our supposed allies.
Privacy Grift: Perhaps most insidiously, the “privacy” industry itself has been captured or compromised. PROTON, beloved by privacy advocates, is owned by woke Silicon Valley VC money with a World Economic Forum director on their board who proudly supports UN initiatives. SIGNAL, constantly promoted as the gold standard for secure messaging, operates with a management team ideologically aligned with surveillance interests and features a former NPR CEO on their board alongside other blatantly non-ideologically aligned members. Even ExpressVPN, heavily promoted through conservative channels like Tucker Carlson and Shawn Ryan, is actually owned and controlled by Israeli intelligence agencies. The “privacy” alternatives being promoted to freedom-minded individuals are often just different flavors of the same surveillance apparatus.
Independence Imperative
MARK37 exists because we recognized this trajectory three years ago. While others debated the finer points of privacy policy, we assembled Ghost Phones running GrapheneOS and generated mountains of content to help guide people toward safer platforms. While politicians promised to regulate Big Tech, we rolled out Ghost Laptops with ZorinOS, because they were so simple to use and didn’t require a lick of coding or much of a learning curve. While activists tweeted about digital rights, we created actual solutions for digital sovereignty.
But building products isn’t enough. We need independent infrastructure, distribution networks, and educational platforms that can’t be compromised, cancelled, or controlled by hostile actors.
Capital Reality
Nearly all venture capital firms are interlocked with the same surveillance economy and globalist money we’re fighting against. Government grants come with strings attached. Most all corporate partnerships mean compromise from day one.
Hence, we need funding from individuals who understand that preserving digital freedom requires more than passive investment—it requires active participation in building parallel systems.
Financial Advisor Problem
Of course our business model looks “risky” to someone whose entire worldview depends on maintaining the status quo. Of course they’ll recommend keeping money in market indices that primarily benefit the same Big Tech companies, private equity and hedge funds we’re fighting.
What’s truly risky, however, is doing nothing while digital freedom disappears entirely.
Moment of Truth
But we also have momentum. Three years of building real solutions. A growing customer base that understands the stakes. Products that actually work, not just privacy theater. A vision for what needs to be built from a broad and experienced team of industry specialists.
The question isn’t whether the resistance to digital surveillance will grow—it’s whether that resistance will have the tools and infrastructure needed to be effective.
Call to Action
The solution isn’t to hope existing organizations will suddenly rediscover their principles. The solution is to build independent alternatives that can’t be captured, compromised, or controlled… by design.
MARK37 has the team, the products, and the vision to scale this mission. What we need now are partners who understand that preserving digital freedom requires more than buying privacy-focused products—it requires investing in the infrastructure that makes digital sovereignty possible.
This isn’t a passive investment opportunity. This is active participation in building the parallel economy that will determine whether digital freedom survives the next decade.
If you understand how critical this moment is, have the capability to contribute meaningfully, and want to be part of the solution rather than just hoping someone else will solve the problem, reach out to Sean Patrick Tario at sean@mark37.com.
Time is not on our side. The surveillance apparatus grows stronger every day. The window for building independent alternatives is closing.
But it hasn’t closed yet!
“All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for enough good men and women to do nothing.”
The choice is yours.
No More Excuses.