Safe and trustworthy aren't binary values. They're probabilities that the system won't release private information to undesired actors. To calculate those, you

Safe and trustworthy aren't binary values. They're probabilities that the system won't release private information to undesired actors. To calculate those, you have to do your own risk assessment. Remember that a risk assessment for privacy has to put the value of the privacy against the cost of security -- on your side. On the attacker's side, it's the value of whatever they can learn about you vs their costs in getting past whatever defenses you have. Generally that results in going one of two ways: you trust a 3rd party vendor for some of it, or you build the damn thing yourself from small parts. And unless you've got a silicon fab at home, or are buying a shitload of transistors off of digikey, you're going to be trusting some 3rd parties. In my book, a remote kill switch is OK if you can also trigger it. For privacy, DOS is pretty harmless -- you don't lose privacy, you just lose access to some data/service. If, in exchange of a risk of DOS, I can get better privacy some other way, I'll take it. As for SC fighting counterfeiters, I don't blame them. They're not making much $$ these days, and this is a way to keep alive without hurting their actual customers.