Not just privacy though. The larger point of starting the GNU project was to allow for freedom to prosper. Stallman understood an important thing about software

Not just privacy though. The larger point of starting the GNU project was to allow for freedom to prosper. Stallman understood an important thing about software : it is a great servent, but a terrible master. He realized that being unable to study the software we use, to modify it and give those improvements to others would mean that it would end up as a tool of oppression. Today, how much control do you have over the technology you depend on ? Search engines can bias search results to get you to think in one way and not another. Social networks can censor you and control what type of information you are allowed to see. Your data is locked up in data centers of Big Tech and they could pull the plug any time causing you a lot of damage. The irony is that some of these companies were built on the software developed by FSF