Re: Firewall
Originally Posted by
NadirPoint
Unauthorized or unintended outbound connections, regardless of their origin or intent are by definition a "bad" thing in the network world. I hope Cannonical is not on the road to becoming a commercial spyware vendor.
I love it. This is hilarious.
For nearly a year now, Ubuntu has sent your Dash search queries to the Ubuntu One Music Store (run by 7Digital) to give you search results of music you can buy, as part of the Music lens. Nobody raised any objections.
For the last six months, Ubuntu has sent your Dash search queries to various other companies who deal in on-demand and "catch-up" video services, to give you search results of videos you can watch online, as part of the Videos lens. Nobody raised any objections - in fact, people quite liked the feature.
Now your search queries get sent to a big, well-known company as part of the Shopping lens, and people are raising all sorts of objections. Let's face it: Few people, probably nobody, would have raised any objections if the Shopping lens was powered by Dealsdirect or Thinkgeek. But since it's Amazon, it's a total invasion of privacy and a security risk, and completely unacceptable. Apparently.
So Canonical writes in a setting that stops the Dash from touching the Internet at all... and no, that's apparently not good enough either. All the objectors still want their search queries splattered halfway across the world to TV catchup services and music stores that most have never heard of, but just not to any well-known companies that make a lot of money.
I'm no fan of Amazon for a number of reasons, but I find it incredible that the privacy advocates didn't raise a peep back when Dash started sending search queries - they're only objecting a year later when the service is expanded to include just one more company.
I try to treat the cause, not the symptom. I avoid the terminal in instructions, unless it's easier or necessary. My instructions will work within the Ubuntu system, instead of breaking or subverting it. Those are the three guarantees to the helpee.
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