Ubuntu - built in adverts and data mining sold to Google and FB?

[Vic Vega]

Could be a thread on this, didn't look.

Read this on a blog, that the newest build has built in adverts and data mining which is being sold to Google, Facebook and a few others.

I'm on 12.04 LTS, don't think I will be updating if the above is true.

 

[lxskllr]

I haven't been following this closely, but it sounds like FUD to me. Ubuntu has Amazon search integrated into the dash. Queries are routed through Canonical's servers, so there's some privacy concerns, but I don't think they're selling that data to the highest bidder. It's just a referral link so Canonical gets a bit of money. That search function can be easily removed if desired. It's no big deal if you otherwise like Ubuntu.

Edit:
Partial correction. It looks like they send anonymized search terms to third parties...

Unless you have opted out, we will also send your keystrokes as a search term to productsearch.ubuntu.com and selected third parties so that we may complement your search results with online search results from such third parties including: Facebook, Twitter, BBC and Amazon. Canonical and these selected third parties will collect your search terms and use them to provide you with search results while using Ubuntu.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/10/privacy-ubuntu-1210-amazon-ads-and-data-leaks
Reputable source^^^

If you want to support Ubuntu, rip the ad guts out, and send them a few dollars, or buy some crap from them. Free software doesn't come without cost. If you value a project, consider supporting them. That can be with code, translations, quality bug reports, or money.

 

[Vic Vega]

They have to know the keylogger won't be acceptable for corporate users. Companies that are deploying Linux to devs and engineers are just going to switch (back) to Fedora and move on. If you have 200 PCs to deploy you aren't going to spend a bunch of time customizing the install.

 

[lxskllr]

They have to know the keylogger won't be acceptable for corporate users. Companies that are deploying Linux to devs and engineers are just going to switch (back) to Fedora and move on. If you have 200 PCs to deploy you aren't going to spend a bunch of time customizing the install.

I dunno. If they value Ubuntu due to differences from other distros, a custom image wouldn't be hard to deploy. I'd assume that was the way it was done anyway. I think these ads should be treated with caution, and they need to be watched in the future, but it's nothing to get excited about atm.

 

[power_hour]

I dunno. If they value Ubuntu due to differences from other distros, a custom image wouldn't be hard to deploy. I'd assume that was the way it was done anyway. I think these ads should be treated with caution, and they need to be watched in the future, but it's nothing to get excited about atm.

The very notion of what they are attempting to accomplish is a slap in the face to the Open source community. Everyone is entitled to make a buck, but how about you do it some other way than this?

Would you want some guy following you around while you shop writing down your habits? Creepy huh?

 

[Red Squirrel]

It's sad that this crap is coming to the open source world... but at least being open source it's easy to remove... for now.

 

[lxskllr]

The very notion of what they are attempting to accomplish is a slap in the face to the Open source community. Everyone is entitled to make a buck, but how about you do it some other way than this?

Would you want some guy following you around while you shop writing down your habits? Creepy huh?

Free software is about doing what you want with your software. ANYTHING you want. That's what makes it free. That also means others can change it, or choose not to use it at all. It's a perfect example of free software at work.

 

[beginner99]

The very notion of what they are attempting to accomplish is a slap in the face to the Open source community. Everyone is entitled to make a buck, but how about you do it some other way than this?

Would you want some guy following you around while you shop writing down your habits? Creepy huh?

Just don't use your real name anywhere and then I hardly care what the collect as long as it can't easily be associated with me as a person. seriously do you anywhere on the inet (besides maybe facebook and twitter) use your real name?
(i know you (or your system) can be recognized by reading tons of settings and cookies and similar stuff which translates to something like an UUID but they still don't know your name).

Besides that I think the amount of data collected by FB and google is just too big and too "unclean" to do any meaningful stuff with.