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posted by mrpg on Tuesday February 20 2018, @12:38PM   Printer-friendly
from the fool-me-once... dept.

The Register spotted Ubuntu behaving badly again with respect to users' privacy. In their article "Ubuntu wants to slurp PCs' vital statistics – even location – with new desktop installs: Data harvest notice will be checked by default", they note that in addition to installing popcon and apport by default, Canonical seeks much deeper data mining (without using the word "telemetry"):

[...] "We want to be able to focus our engineering efforts on the things that matter most to our users, and in order to do that we need to get some more data about sort of setups our users have and which software they are running on it," explained Will Cooke, the director of Ubuntu Desktop at Canonical.

[...] Data Canonical seeks "would include" the following: Ubuntu Flavour, Ubuntu Version, Network connectivity or not, CPU family, RAM, Disk(s) size, Screen(s) resolution, GPU vendor and model, OEM Manufacturer, Location (based on the location selection made by the user at install). No IP information would be gathered, Installation duration (time taken), Auto login enabled or not, Disk layout selected, Third party software selected or not, Download updates during install or not, [and] LivePatch enabled or not.

The system plans to leverage the power of the default setting by making the choice opt-out, not opt-in as popcon has been in the past: Cooke explained to the ubuntu-devel audience that "Any user can simply opt out by unchecking the box, which triggers one simple POST stating, 'diagnostics=false'. There will be a corresponding checkbox in the Privacy panel of GNOME Settings to toggle the state of this."

El Reg also noted Ubuntu's plan to address user privacy concerns:

"The Ubuntu privacy policy would be updated to reflect this change."

This seems less egregious than Ubuntu's past invasions of privacy, but much more invasive and Windows 10-like.


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by janrinok on Tuesday February 20 2018, @01:19PM (6 children)

    by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 20 2018, @01:19PM (#640616) Journal

    It still is - the user decides whether to activate this feature or not. This differs significantly from the Microsoft option where it is next to impossible to remove the telemetry feature and, if you do, it will probably get reinstalled at the next update. It would be better to be opt-in rather than opt-out but, if you are capable of installing your own OS, you should be able to deselect the appropriate option at installation time.

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  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Grishnakh on Tuesday February 20 2018, @05:45PM (3 children)

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Tuesday February 20 2018, @05:45PM (#640749)

    It still is - the user decides whether to activate this feature or not. This differs significantly from the Microsoft option where it is next to impossible to remove the telemetry feature and, if you do, it will probably get reinstalled at the next update.

    You still have the option, as a user, to decide whether to activate these features with Microsoft Windows 10. If you don't want these telemetry features, it's very simple: don't install or use Windows 10. No one's physically forcing you to sit at a Windows 10 computer and use it.

    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 21 2018, @01:38AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 21 2018, @01:38AM (#640980)

      Wow, thanks for the tip, moron.

    • (Score: 2) by TheGratefulNet on Wednesday February 21 2018, @03:26PM (1 child)

      by TheGratefulNet (659) on Wednesday February 21 2018, @03:26PM (#641178)

      No one's physically forcing you to sit at a Windows 10 computer and use it.

      forced to use win10 at work ;(

      we use linux for real work, but the corp idiots who know nothing - OF COURSE picked MS for the whole company and so there's no real choice for the employees.

      last job we used linux at the desktop and it was great. no MS at all in my working day. now, sadly, they are forcing everyone (even win7) to 'upgrade'. they take people's laptops for half a day, render that employee useless for that time, and then return the pc with that crapware on it.

      sometimes, security really is just a word that is used by corps but not at ALL understood. my current company is like that ;(

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
      • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday February 21 2018, @03:45PM

        by Grishnakh (2831) on Wednesday February 21 2018, @03:45PM (#641192)

        forced to use win10 at work ;(

        1. No one's physically forcing you to do that job, and preventing you from finding another.
        2. At work, you're being paid to put up with bullshit. Dealing with stuff like Win10 and "enterprise software" is part of the job, and what you're being paid for.
        3. Perhaps most importantly, if you're working at a company of any real size, there's no telemetry in Windows 10 (which is what this thread was complaining about in the first place). The enterprise edition of Win10 doesn't have it. And even if it did, they're spying on your employer, not you.

        last job we used linux at the desktop and it was great.

        Should have stuck with that job :-) There are jobs like this, and if more people avoided the Win10 jobs and went for the Linux-only jobs, we'd have some improvement. When a corporate recruiter calls and tries to get you to interview with them, find out what their IT system is running, and when you find out it's Win10, tell them you're not interested in dealing with that, or you expect a very handsome salary bump for it. Maybe they'll eventually learn if enough candidates tell them this.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 21 2018, @09:25AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 21 2018, @09:25AM (#641085)

    It still is - the user decides whether to activate this feature or not.

    According to the summary, this is not the case. Ubuntu decides to activate this feature, and the user may decide to opt out, when he happens to learn about it three years later.

    Until the user touches the checkbox in question, the user has not decided to activate it.

    • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday February 21 2018, @12:15PM

      by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 21 2018, @12:15PM (#641133) Journal

      If you are installing an OS and don't know what you are doing, perhaps you shouldn't be installing an OS!

      You have to select locale, disk configuration and formatting, what packages you wish (server, desktop etc), which environment (MATE, KDE etc) and so on. Yet you think the same person who can make informed decisions on such things cannot decide whether to accept or decline the option to feed some data back to Ubuntu?