Does Ubuntu have malicious NSA code?

[cfultz]

No ubuntu user will "check" the kernel code. Sorry. It is all about trust. Really.

I was thinking the same thing. Even knowing some coding myself, I wouldn't be able to tell any of you what I'm looking at in a kernel or parts of the OS.

[deadflowr]

No ubuntu user will "check" the kernel code. Sorry. It is all about trust. Really.

Whether you want to check the 15 million lines of kernel code or not is really up to you.
But it's an ability you have, something Windows users don't have.

And I don't consider Ubuntu privacy policies in regards to sharing information backdoor issues.
Frontdoor issues, maybe?

The only thing I see as a means of backdoors and sharing would be bad coding, allowing exploits of said sharing features.

[craig10x]

Wow thanks for the great responses! Question. All of the information that Ubuntu collects, is that just Unity related? Is it as simple as changing the desktop environment?

It's in the dash search on unity...however, all internet searches can be switched off in 5 seconds by going to the privacy section of the system settings and hitting the "off button"...

But despite what some paranoids here will tell you, if you leave the dash search on, Canonical simply forwards that invisibly (Amazon can't see where it is coming from) for Amazon's servers to provide some shopping suggestions for their site...that's all...no biggie...no nsa spying or any other such nonsense...even Canonical does not retain the information...and what's the big secret here that you can't stand to be revealed? that you looked for "system monitor" to bring the application up....wow...that's really digging deep into your private information isn't it?

By the way, your files aren't being sent to canonical just the name of whatever you looked for in dash search (like say "pidgin" "vlc media player" etc)...
It's not looking at your mp3s, videos, documents, downloads, etc...much like when you do a search on say, yahoo and you get ads that are targeted to the item you are searching for...


If you want your private information really looked at...just join facebook, twitter and other social media sites (lol)...i wouldn't worry about Ubuntu with unity and the dash search...
And if you otherwise like using unity and the main edition of ubuntu, i wouldn't let some of the people here dissuade you from using it...

[monkeybrain2012]

Not directly to the NSA no - however, Canonical does collect data about your search terms and those gets sent to third party advertizers, which may be snooped on by 5 different three letter agencies and 10 criminal syndicates. Instead of worrying about the NSA, I am more concerned about the latter.

So, if you are running vanilla Ubuntu with Unity, consider changing to Xubuntu or Kubuntu, since default Ubuntu is basically spyware in the Google Analytics and Microsoft Alexa tradition.

I suppose 5 letter syndicates and criminal organizations have better things to do than sieving through random search strings (first few characters of a string) from some anonymised users. BTW, your ISP knows everything about you if you ever go online.

[monkeybrain2012]

I was thinking the same thing. Even knowing some coding myself, I wouldn't be able to tell any of you what I'm looking at in a kernel or parts of the OS.

Maybe not most users. But there are many coders and developers who would look at the codes as they are open.

[hansdown]

So, if you are running vanilla Ubuntu with Unity, consider changing to Xubuntu or Kubuntu, since default Ubuntu is basically spyware in the Google Analytics and Microsoft Alexa tradition.

I use duckduckgo as a search engine, and add ghostery to firefox.

Ghostery kills google analytics, as well as "all the other ones".

[Soul-Sing]

I use duckduckgo as a search engine, and add ghostery to firefox.

Ghostery kills google analytics, as well as "all the other ones".

Big "things", like google, facebook, etc etc, are easily blocked by, via etc/hosts, or a few lines in IPTABLES. Ghostery has it's issue's.
About search engines: https://www.ixquick.com/eng/prism-program-revealed.html

[tubbygweilo]

Looks like ixquick is attracting a flood of users https://www.ixquick.com/eng/press/pr-three-million.html as I expect other search engines offering similar safeguards are also attracting custom.

[Soul-Sing]

tubbygweilo indeed. And don't forget the proxy possibility surfing the results of the engine.

[tubbygweilo]

Yep, TOR bundle & ixquick encrypted proxy search may make it harder for others to see exactly what you are doing but may well act as a red flag to others employed to sniff & sift through such data.