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Canonical now joins Microsoft and Apple in tracking users of its OS

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40hz:
Once again Ubuntu is making history in the Linux world. This time it's the wrong kind.

From OSNews (link):

Ubuntu abandons search privacy
posted by Howard Fosdick   on Thu 3rd Jan 2013 08:57 UTC

Proprietary software like Windows often includes surveillance code to track user behavior and send this information to vendor servers. Linux has traditionally been immune to such privacy violation. Ubuntu 12.10 now includes code that, by default, collects data on Dash searches. The code integrates Amazon products into search results and can even integrate with Facebook, Twitter, BBC and others as per Ubuntu's Third Party Privacy Policies.
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The above article provided links to a well-balanced EFF analysis that's worth a read since it goes into how this works both from a technical and legal perspective and explains the relatively simple way (currently) to remove the tracking feature. I say "relatively simple" since there's no switch or control panel to shut it off. You need to open a terminal and issue a command (sudo apt-get remove unity-lens-shopping) which virtually guarantees 90% of the people using Ubuntu under Unity will never do so.

And they said innovation was dead at Canonical? :-\

Full EFF article here.

Richard Stallman has also (surprise!, sursprise! >:D) weighed in on this over at his FSF blogspace. Read what RMS has to say about it here.

In the interests of confining DoCo discussions to mostly technical matters as Mouser has suggested, I'll not comment on any of this.

OK. Maybe I will just a little?

Onward! :Thmbsup:

Renegade:
In the interests of confining DoCo discussions to mostly technical matters as Mouser has suggested, I'll not comment on any of this. -40hz (January 03, 2013, 09:45 AM)
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Ditto. ;)

mahesh2k:
You need to open a terminal and issue a command (sudo apt-get remove unity-lens-shopping) which virtually guarantees 90% of the people using Ubuntu under Unity will never do so.
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TBH, people using unity and ubuntu are smart enough to use this hack and this hack is used in myunity and official option of turning off amazon search. So I don't think people will ignore that.

40hz:
TBH, people using unity and ubuntu are smart enough
-mahesh2k (January 03, 2013, 12:53 PM)
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Remains to be seen...

Possibly now with Ubu (and Linux) still not being mainstream enough for the average desktop.

But down the road, I wonder...

Especially after the number of WinPCs I've seen with all the crapware shortcuts still on the desktop two years after the owner first got their machine. (And many of these people have been using Windows since Win95!)

As the demographic changes, so too will the "monetization" games that get played.

Right now, Linux is fairly safe because it's still pretty geek. But if Canonical has its way, that won't be the case forever. Especially once they finally release their openly 'secret' tablet PC.

Just remember - whenever automated background processes are allowed to run (especially processes that have network communications capabilities) there is also a group of very knowledgeable people actively looking for ways to abuse and profit from it.



Such a high price to pay for a little (debatable) user convenience and profit opportunity.
 :)

mahesh2k:
I do agree that tracking search queries and user behavior is bad. But how many linux users stop using Google for the same reason? Using linux with some ethics and then pointing browsers to Google that does the same like amazon, makes no difference. I don't think they do see this point, so on what stance they say that canonical is not allowed to use amazon search? (We know amazon tracks data just like google and canonical is helping them do that for profit).

The same doesn't apply for their usage of Google because they like it or got used to it etc. I would hold arguments from linux community with much respect if they call "spade a spade" and put every similar card in same line. Especially RMS and EFF when they are making claims out of thin air.

I think RMS and EFF painted canonical in much darker shade using Media. That said, people moving to ubuntu out of consumer frustration and paranoia are smart already to avoid such affiliate links and stuff. Calling it Spyware (fsf reference) and user tracking corporation (Eff reference) is exaggeration, IMO.

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