Computers and Paranoia/Fear?

**pompel9** · September 21st, 2012

Originally Posted by pqwoerituytrueiwoq

when you install something to crack (pirate) a program for example MS office (for the record i would not do that MS anything is a security risk IMO)
BTW that feature is in Ubuntu (it is opt in)
open software-properties-gtk

That is a poor example, because that option is turned off by default. You have a choice. On windows 8 you can not turn of the gathering of data and call home process.

**lisati** · September 22nd, 2012

A lot of the (mis)information out there on the web can safely be ignored. The nature of the internet is such that anyone can set themselves up as an expert, with minimal assurance of the value of what they have to say.

To put it another way, if you talk to any sizable group, chances are you'll be able to get at least as many opinions as there are people.

**Porcini M.** · September 22nd, 2012

Personally, I fear that the economic importance of intellectual property (music, DVDs, etc) give great incentives for stakeholders to collaborate with software and service providers to monitor computing devices and their users.

Also, targeted marketing is a huge industry, so the personal information on our computers is valuable.

Finally, criminal organizations around the world have incentive to access the information on our devices & to coopt their operation for their own ends.

In a nutshell, there's lots of reasons for outside parties to want to gain access to our devices. Therefore I advocate good security practices.

**forrestcupp** · September 22nd, 2012

The solar panel on your calculator is actually a 3D camera that sends shots of your facial expressions into the government. The 'C' button on your calculator is actually a finger print sensor so they can keep track of you when you are cheating on your taxes.

**pompel9** · September 22nd, 2012

And there went a serious discussion out the window.

Oh well.

**cariboo** · September 22nd, 2012

Originally Posted by forrestcupp

The solar panel on your calculator is actually a 3D camera that sends shots of your facial expressions into the government. The 'C' button on your calculator is actually a finger print sensor so they can keep track of you when you are cheating on your taxes.

Originally Posted by pompel9

And there went a serious discussion out the window.

Oh well.

Actually we see enough of those types of comments in the Security Discussions sub-forum, that I think computers and paranoia do seem to go together.

The problem as I see it, is that the type of person that makes those kinds of comments, only learns enough to feed their fears, and nothing more, and nothing you can say will change their minds.

**mr john** · September 22nd, 2012

turning off a feature at the client side doesn't prevent data collection at the server side. Most webservers have log systems that collect ip addresses, browser details etc. These "app stores" including the Ubuntu store are little more than customised web servers. If it's online it can be tracked./

**Old_Grey_Wolf** · September 22nd, 2012

Originally Posted by mr john

turning off a feature at the client side doesn't prevent data collection at the server side. Most webservers have log systems that collect ip addresses, browser details etc. ...

There are scripts you can include on your personal website that collect ip address, browser version, default language, window size, screen resolution, colour depth, java version, etc. Mine does

.

Even with javascript disabled on the client side I still get the ip address.

**Paqman** · September 22nd, 2012

Originally Posted by mr john

Is it just that there are alot of paranoid people in the world?

Yup.

Frequenting Linux sites probably won't do your perception of the general level of paranoia much good, either. Paranoid folks are more likely to use Linux in the first place, so are disproportionately represented within the penguin-loving community.