The challenge of sourcing ethical computer hardware

Every laptop and smartphone we can buy right now is tainted in some terrible way.

Finding computer hardware (components, laptops, smart phones, you name it) that is produced in an ethical way is astoundingly challenging.

Borderline impossible.

In my rather strange career, I’ve worked at a few companies that were in the computer hardware business. Between that, and my time working as a Tech Journalist, I have never run across a computer hardware manufacturer that produces their gear in an ethical way.

Not one.

Here are just a few ways that computer hardware — and I’m talking about all of it here… CPUs, memory, SBCs, assembled systems (like smart phones, game consoles, laptops, etc.) — tends to be highly unethical.

Source material that hurts people

When thinking about the misery and sadness that computer hardware can bring into the world, let’s start with the raw materials used to build them.

Batteries are a great (or terrible) example. Good odds your laptop or smartphone uses a battery with cobalt in it.

And an absolutely staggering amount of that cobalt is mined by children, forced to work (and, often, die) in the cobalt mines in Africa. Tens of thousands of child slaves. Apple, Google, Tesla, Dell, and Microsoft have all been sued over this.

This problem has not gone away. Merely swept under the rug. A few companies, Apple included, have taken some steps to improving this situation… but the problem remains.

Hardware assembled by slaves

Uyghur Muslims in China have been put to work building and assembling hardware for many suppliers. Including those that provide components to Apple (among many other companies).

Slaves. Building our laptops and phones.

Expand this out ever so slightly, and we’ve all heard the stories of the Foxconn workers, forced into terrible working conditions, and committing suicide rather than continue building Apple and HP hardware.

It’s hard to look at hardware and enjoy using it… when you know the pain inflicted on so many thousands of people in order to bring it to you.

Hardware that spies on you

Then there is hardware that is, literally, built to spy on you. To invade your personal privacy.

Hardware like the Intel Management Engine built into all modern Intel desktop CPUs. You have no access to it. But it can see (and report) everything that you do on your computer.

It even has a built-in web server. Why, on this green Earth, is there a hidden web server on your CPU — that you are not allowed to access — that sees every byte of memory on your computer?

Hardware that is built to die

CPU components with hardened globs of goo covering their chips (making them hard or impossible to repair).

Batteries, RAM, drives, and other (traditionally removable) components made non removable. Not user serviceable.

Non-removable batteries that are engineered to die. Thus creating an artificial lifespan for the hardware. Forcing you, the customer, to buy new gear when you would otherwise not need to.

It is astounding how much effort goes into making sure computer hardware is not repairable or serviceable by end users.

There are no good options

All of these things are unethical. Some more than others.

And, here’s the truly terrible part… there are no good options for truly ethical hardware suppliers.

None.

To show you just how terribly hopeless the quest for finding ethical hardware is… let’s look at one product that is specifically advertised as being “ethical”: The Librem 5 USA smartphone.

Full disclosure: I used to be the Director of Marketing for Purism, the company that makes the Librem 5 smartphone, along with a line of laptops. I quit working for the company some time back. What I am about to talk about here is all publicly available information and in no way violates any NDAs.

The Librem 5 USA specifically states they have an “Ethical Supply Chain”:

“Librem 5 USA offers an ethical supply chain within the United States adhering to strict US labor, environmental, and materials laws. The Librem 5 USA includes Made in USA Electronics at the Purism facility with US-based staff combining the best of class regulatory needs with the most secure and ethical supply chain.”

This is a laudable goal! One I support 100%! Purism even publishes a chart on their website showing the “Origin Declaration” for each category of component. An excellent step!

However (and this is a big however)…

This really only tells us where the components are combined together. It doesn’t tell us were things like the chips themselves are actually made.

After I left Purism, I asked a Purism VP, Kyle Rankin (who I also worked with previously at The Linux Journal, when I was the Deputy Editor of that magazine, and who is a genuinely good nerd) if Purism would publish where the chips and individual components are actually manufactured.

The answer was… no.

“We aren't going to publish a full BOM [Bill of Materials]. Where an individual chip is fabbed is less important than where the electronics are made. In the current supply chain environment sources and production for chips is bound to change somewhat frequently anyway.”

When he says “where the electronics are made”, I assume he is referring to “chips put on the board”. Because the chips used… we aren’t given the information of where they are made.

That means that when you have a product, like the Librem 5 USA, which is built almost entirely to be ethical… it’s still completely impossible to know how ethical the hardware components are.

Where is the CPU made? The RAM? The storage? Where did those chips come from? Slaves involved? China (nearly 100% guarantee for some of the chips)? Child labor for the raw materials?

No way of knowing. And that is the absolute best we can do right now, when it comes to finding ethical hardware.

How this can be changed

Let’s be realistic. It doesn’t need to be this way. The computer hardware industry does not need to profit, so regularly, from such unethical behavior. It is simply not necessary.

Want to fix it — at least a little?

Mandate one simple thing:

Every piece of hardware needs to include a full list of the material used. Every chip. Every battery. Including what company made them, when, and where.

That’ll put a spotlight on the specific unethical behaviors… giving the most egregiously offending companies a serious black eye. And allow consumers to make choices about what they support.

There is zero reason this can’t be done.

Every hardware manufacturer has all of this information at their disposal already (it is required in order to produce the hardware). In fact, this information is already (for most companies), in a handy dandy spreadsheet. Publishing the details would require a minimal investment in time. Even when hardware is updated regularly with changing suppliers.

Any company that says otherwise is not telling us the truth.

In the meantime, the best option available to us…

Is to only buy used hardware.

Sure, much of that used hardware is going to suffer from the same unethical issues that the new gear is. But, at least with used hardware, we are not giving companies additional revenue for new hardware produced in unethical ways.

If enough of us focus on used hardware, that will send a message to the hardware companies. It’s a longshot. But the alternative is fairly horrific.

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