A Reddit post: Any online recommended converter?
Sharp comments from Redditors below: ffmpeg, image magick, youtubedl…
Rather than using online conversion services of unknown origin, it is better to use these open source tools to convert images and videos on your own computer. Even better, they are open source. As long as you know how to use the command line (some have been wrapped into graphical interfaces), they can wipe the floor with the piles of greedy, closed source software often downloaded on non-free operating systems. In addition, there are actually people who think “Format Factory” is useful? That is closed source software published by the country with the world’s largest low human rights record, and it has even been nailed to the wall of shame on the ffmpeg official website for violating open source agreements.
I only learned from reading the newspaper that once you covet convenience, your own rights and interests will be harmed. Freeware hides far more traps than proprietary software. If graphical software internally wraps open source libraries, the whole program should also let people see its internal structure clearly. Many times, rather than throwing files at a website for conversion, it is better to type a few commands yourself and get the result.
If desktop conversion software is already like this, then what about online conversion services?
Online MP3 conversion, online PDF conversion, online MP4 conversion, online code editors…. To be honest, when seeing so many convenient tools, people click in and put the project files they are working on into them for third-party processing, quickly obtaining files. This clearly does not consider privacy issues. What if the website is not merely computing data locally (in the webpage), but sends your data to a backend server for processing? Can you really trust these online conversion services?
For relatively well-known large companies, under the influence of EU regulations, at least they clearly state privacy policies and remind customers when entering the website. In that case, the trust level is decided by the public. Specifically, the Reddit r/PrivacyGuides community can provide relatively clear evaluations, and of course open source is the first consideration.
But when searching for “conversion”, what you more often see are convenient conversion websites stuffed full of ads. What they collect behind the scenes is hard to say, not to mention websites registered and filed inside China.
Never think that just because I only uploaded a few unimportant report images, the data is therefore unimportant.
So after finding some all-purpose conversion website, be sure to first read the privacy policy at the bottom of the website, and prioritize services that adopt open source technology. You can even consult privacy communities about the site’s reputation before processing files there. Otherwise, use offline open source software to handle it.
If many websites inevitably test users’ level of trust, a website people are used to may become untrustworthy after a security vulnerability is exposed. Therefore, it is important to prepare backups for any basic services one relies on for survival, and also to have the ability to solve problems yourself with open source software, so that you will not be constrained at critical moments.
