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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.
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Tuesday February 20 2018, @03:58PM (4 children)
If it is like Fedora's old attempt with smolt or Debian's popcon there isn't an issue here. The problem is the nutters obsessing over privacy to the point it is creating anti-information. What hardware is most used? Really important information when deciding what to buy, what to expend development effort into, etc. But because of the nutters that information is intentionally suppressed.
We demand 100% Free Software and at the same time put unreasonable demands on the people providing it. Then most of the same nutters give Zuckersperg and Jack every last intimate detail of their life.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by requerdanos on Tuesday February 20 2018, @04:44PM
Debian's popcon is off by default, and not by accident: Someone doing the equivalent of clicking next next next through a portion of the install won't actually turn on a potentially compromising feature by accident that way. And since Debian and derivatives are intended for use in many situations, some very sensitive, this is a good thing from a security standpoint.
Ubuntu proposes here specifically to change their port of popcon to be on by default, as well as turning the rest of it on by default.
So, sort of like it, in that popcon is involved, sort of not like it, in that the Debian developers have a privacy goal (and clue) not shared by those of Ubuntu.
(Score: 1) by tftp on Tuesday February 20 2018, @05:35PM (2 children)
It's not a useful information. There are many reasons why people run Linux on an old PC. It absolutely does not mean that Ubuntu should pay special attention to old PCs. Ubuntu should pay attention to features that people directly ask for - like removal of spying features or, perhaps, replacing Unity with something familiar. But I fear that financing of Ubuntu is based on commercialization of the distribution.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by jmorris on Tuesday February 20 2018, @05:47PM (1 child)
Don't be retarded. You don't run things based on the few who yell loudest. That is like thinking the callers to a radio talk show are reflective of the listeners. We don't make public policy based on the few morons with the free time to stand out on the street waving signs. It would be really good to know whether the irritating asshole who is yelling on the bug tracker and mailing list is the only known user of a piece of hardware or if 5% of the current user base is impacted. Bug fixing is a matter allocating finite resources. Likewise, as a user I'd like to know that 5% have that specific item since odds are any problems would be quickly addressed.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by requerdanos on Tuesday February 20 2018, @10:29PM
This whole effort is based on that idea.