Is Ubuntu spying on you?

[viking60]

The Electronic Frontier has several issues with Ubuntus new Amazone integrated dash search. Apparently there is a small "i" you can press to se the conditions that you are "accepting": "The new version of Dash that comes with Ubuntu 12.10 introduces more than just Amazon ads. It includes a new legal notice that you can see by clicking the "i" in the corner of Dash that states that by using Dash, you automatically agree to send your search term and IP address to a number of third parties." "...Canonical is not clear about which third parties it sends data to and when, but it appears that many of these third parties only get searched in certain circumstances. Ubuntu's new Online Accounts feature lets you authorize Ubuntu to use your accounts from Facebook, Twitter, Google, Flickr and other services for Ubuntu apps. Dash will likely search these services for photos, documents, and other content only after you've authorized Ubuntu to use them." So if you have been stupid enough to deliver your data to Facebook or Google or Flickr or Twitter You will automatically be handing that out to Ubuntu. So forget about Ubuntu beeing free - you are the product.

Combined with the fact that Ubuntu has become one of the worst Linux disrtibutions out there - I would recommend Mint or Fedora or any other distro that is not invading your privacy.
The EFF is always worth listening to...

And if you want to stick to Ubuntu and still value your privacy you should immediately run this command:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get remove unity-lens-shopping

It has no negative effect on your system - it simply takes care of the respect for your privacy!
And set the dash to search only your local computer - not the internet (you can do that in your browser as always)
And finally just to make sure; you should get rid of Unity alltogether and replace it with Gnome or KDE.

If you need help in doing this; do not hesitate to ask here - we will help you!
Canonical has supplied the posibility to opt out of this - but as always - that is harder to find, and should be the other way arround really. So simply by beeing aware of these issues you can stick to your Ubuntu and make it respect your privacy.
It just has become harder than it used to be though....

[dedanna1029]

Remember, Mint is Canonical too, and is much the same in general. At least half the repos for Mint are Ubuntu's oneiric... not good. It's one of the reasons I do not like Canonical, stuff like this. They try to make everything you do "just like Windows" and too easy to do; the problem is, you can't get "under the hood" so to speak much any more with it. That's the problem. A lot of us wonder what they're hiding under the hood; now we know. You just told us.

The more I think about it, the more I think I may just go ahead and go terminal-only so I can see what's under the hood.

Edit: And, there is no question about it. Ubuntu/Canonical/Mint are spying on you. That's gospel now. I've seen it.

[viking60]

Yes Mint is a fork of Ubuntu although I am not sure at all that it is "Canonical too" - I don't think so. The repos are not the problem it is the Unity DE where this dashboard is a part of the design.
And it is Linux so you can get under the hood of it as much as you want, so it is not all that bad. You can safely use Ubuntu without the Unity DE or turn the stuff off.
The criticism is that it is turned on by default.

So you should leave Mint (or Debian for that matter) out of it, this is only a problem with Ubuntu (Canonical).

I think it is great that Canonical is backing Linux with a sh... load of money, but they should be able to do so without compromising your privacy or at least give you the posibility to actively chose it.

[dedanna1029]

You'd be surprised. On my last installation of Linux Mint, I got almost completely Ubuntu/Canonical software, to include Unity, and had a LOT of uninstalling to do, to the point of just reinstalling, and I'm going to be doing it again - to get rid of directly - Canonical. There is also this:

it uses the same commands and runs most apps the same as Ubuntu; in short, it’s Ubuntu without someone else telling you what to do or taking the OS into a direction that you’re unwilling to follow. Ubuntu One works with Mint, and best of all, you can customize it to look, feel, and run exactly how you want it.

Which, for most users of Linux, is exactly what they want.

^^ That is, in part, false - Mint does everything for you. It's very hard to learn the "under the hood" stuff, and seems, at times, difficult to "penetrate" in that way. Another reason it's going. It's waaaayy too automatic to me, in an Ubuntu way.

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/10 ... new-ubuntu

It's quite true, it is exactly what most users want, but I don't. There still hasn't been time to put the OpenSuse on the netbook, but it won't be long now. Just have some catching up in school to do. I'll run you my repos when I'm on the netbook next. You'll see, it's pretty much Canonical; it just has the Debian base, is all.

Linux Mint 13 is based on Ubuntu 12.04

Ubuntu itself is the basis for other popular Linux distributions such as Linux Mint, Peppermint OS, and Turnkey Linux.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/s ... ions/10726

It may not be directly Canonical, but it relies on Canonical - Canonical everything, pretty much.

Sorry, one more:

TM: Linux Mint is an Ubuntu derivative. Ubuntu itself is a Debian derivative. What are the key features that distinguish Linux Mint from Ubuntu?

CL: As projects and organizations, Ubuntu and Linux Mint are extremely different. Although technically similar they should appeal to different people. Ubuntu has a clear roadmap and a fixed release cycle. Linux Mint is very different in that respect. Basically both distributions are technically similar but the user experience under Ubuntu or Linux Mint can vary greatly because of the two different communities, two different ways of working, and because of the specifics of Mint on the desktop. This includes efforts to make things work out of the box (NTFS integration, multimedia codecs, etc...), tools to ease the use of the computer (mintDisk, mintAssistant, mintInstall, Envy, NTFS-Config, etc.) and tools to enhance the desktop experience (mintMenu, mintConfig, mintUpload, Gnome Control Center, etc...). It's not so much the technical differences between Ubuntu and Linux Mint which are important—as you can see with each release we both merge in new Ubuntu innovations and add our own new tools (hopefully Ubuntu will start using our tools/ideas too in the future)—what's important is that both distributions are independent but also compatible and this lets us develop our own idea of what a desktop should be. We don't need to set ourselves apart technically, we are different because we implement our own vision of the perfect desktop, whether it's 50% or 99% similar to Ubuntu has no real importance.

Those "innovations" are becoming more and more obvious. His last statement there about the "whether it's 50% or 99% similar to Ubuntu having no real importance" is all too false (and he created the thing). The true statement is "we're trying to be an Ubuntu2".

[viking60]

Näh I don't belive in the Canonical infiltrating the world theory - They just fubared with the Unity DE. Mint is about giving back the feel of the good old Ubuntu and Gnome2 - and that made them popular.
It seems to be the strategic decision that the computer will be all about smartphones in the future; both Canonical and Microsoft seem to agree about that. And none of them will ever have a chance in that market that is dominated by Google with Apple as runner up.

Google is bad in terms of privacy, Canonical has become bad, Apple is a disaster and has even patented the right to remote control your camera, with MS we do not know but they have not been as bad so far.

Most people are somewhat behind in terms of understandanding what the technology is capable of in terms of ruining their privacy. Google seem to be proud of knowing everything about you - and selling it to third parties. So they are not "free" - people just don't know the price.
Some poor bastad in China might have found out, after Google sold information about who digs Dalai Lama, but other than that...

With Linux we have the posibility to change it - with Apple and MS products we cannot. That makes Canonical (and even Google) somewhat better. But when Canonical starts to collect everything that Google and Facebook has gathered about you - then this escalates and makes it even worse.

Putting together information like that would be illegal if you would do it about your government, Then you would get the "National security" treatment.....

So it comes down to if you think that you are entiteled to less privacy than your government. The EFF is a good wathdog in these matters. And these things need to be stoped now, because they are escalating beyond belief.

And thus we need to offer our help to Ubuntu users in this case, to avoid the espionage.

And above all we will have to repeat that (overly) social people should not provide more information than absolutely neccessary to Google and Facebook and facetube and whatever.
So when Google offers this fantastic service of giving your password back to you on your mobile phone, if you only would give them your mobile phonenumber., then what will you do?

Answer: Never give it to them - it is better to write your password down and give it to all your friends (probably to late - and that is the problem! - Now Canonical can just pick it up).

Should you tell Facebook about you braking up with George Cloney and your current vacation on Bahamas with Brad Pit? Yes please do; so I can break in at your current home address (that you have published on Facebook?) and steal your PC and all your jewels.

[dedanna1029]

Should you tell Facebook about you braking up with George Cloney and your current vacation on Bahamas with Brad Pit? Yes please do; so I can break in at your current home address (that you have published on Facebook?) and steal your PC and all your jewels.

That's why I always give faux ones.

Let them try that one on for size. Another reason I always say I'm somewhere I'm not, such as overseas. When I'm there, I'll say I'm in Boznia.

[viking60]

Mark Shuttleworth apologizes for the Tea Party remark:

On another, more personal note, I made a mistake myself when I used the label “open source tea party” to refer to the vocal non-technical critics of work that Canonical does. That was unnecessary and quite possibly equally offensive to members of the real Tea Party (hi there!) and the people with vocal non-technical criticism of work that Canonical does (hello there!).

About time - Where would we be if Linux was all about free tea?