SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
KDE's Telemetry: The Tip Of The Iceberg?:
Recently, there was a debate on the PCLinuxOS forum about KDE Plasma's implementation of telemetry through KUserFeedback. While in PCLinuxOS, we can remove it without any collateral effects to the system, while other users reported that doing the same in other distros (like Debian 11) results in the complete removal of KDE Plasma! Why force such an implementation, if, as KDE's developers say, it is just an innocuous, privacy-respecting measure?
Coincidence or not, in the past years many popular Linux distributions started rolling out optional telemetry. Then it was the time of computer programs: news broke out in May regarding Audacity, a popular audio editing app, which announced it was starting the use of telemetry. The move was finally pushed back after users revolted against it.
While many point out that the data collection is by opt-in and entirely anonymous, others have found that, even if you don't activate telemetry, data is still collected, using computer resources, registering "apps and boot, number of times used and duration in /home/user/telemetry folder." As such, they argue that, because of the way Linux permissions work, other programs could have access to these log files. KUserFeedback's FAQs page confirms this:
"KUserFeedback is designed to be compliant with KDE Telemetry Policy, which forbids the usage of unique identification. If you are using KUserFeedback outside of the scope of that policy, it's of course possible to add a custom data source generating and transmitting a unique id."
Do any Soylentils have opinions about this, or experiences with it?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 01 2021, @10:49AM (1 child)
25 years ago, the nerds on this site would just about have had a fit over the idea of a program gathering info on you to send back to the mothership. Whose computer is it, anyway? But people have been beaten into submission on this issue. Even automobiles will now log such things as when you open the door or turn on the radio, how fast you were driving, etc., and the cars have cellular communications to send info to the mothership. Let's not forget the microphones installed in the automobile, either. It's a dystopia.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 01 2021, @12:11PM
Yep, so true.
They push the needle of unprivacy in slowly just like a mosquito so you do not notice.
Also, the greater problem is that it is like "feature" creep.
More lines of code, more bloat and more security surface vectors to attack and missuse.
No thanks,
Please fuck off with this shit.
Next, they will make the Linux kernel phone home like M$.
Our privacy is under attack under the guise that it is optional and "good" for us.
Fuck telemetry.