Software that supports your body should always respect your freedom
In July, users of the proprietary software app LibreLink, who live in the UK and use Apple devices, found that the app they depend on to monitor their blood sugar was not working anymore after the developer Abbott pushed an updated for the app. Monitoring glucose levels helps people with diabetes to see when their glucose level is too low or too high, which is a critical part of treatment.
"This equipment is supposed to save your life," David Burchell, who has type 1 diabetes, told the BBC. "And basically it broke, just showing a white screen, and I had a panic. ... I was left without an active test, other than the fingerprint testing. Pricking your finger a hundred times a week is a nightmare."
Burchell deleted the app and tried to reinstall it to fix the problem but said, "when trying to redownload it, they'd taken it off the app store so I couldn't download it [again]." Despite what its name may suggest, there is nothing libre about the LibreLink app. It's proprietary software, which means users must depend on the company to keep it running and to distribute it. With free software, Burchell would have had the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change, and improve the software himself, or he could have leaned on a community of developers and users to share and fix the software, and the old version of the software would have been available to revert the update.