Does Ubuntu have malicious NSA code?

[killa7]

Does Ubuntu have malicious NSA code? Does the NSA have special backdoors to Ubuntu or even the Linux Kernel? After I found out that the NSA has had special backdoors to the Windows OS, I've been worried that Ubuntu might also have these same backdoors for the NSA. I understand that SELinux is a contribution from the NSA which some have claimed to be legitimate. Even if the NSA does not have direct access to Ubuntu, does Ubuntu save and send my data to there servers?

[hansdown]

Hi killa7.

Microsoft was taken to court, for that info.

You should worry more about your ISP being forced to turn over info.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=nsa+isp+snooping&t=canonical

Also this.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...-kong/2447665/

[deadflowr]

You can look at the code yourself.

The source is always available to see on a default Ubuntu.

Therein lies the difference between Ubuntu and Windows.

[tubbygweilo]

"You might think that, I couldn't possibly comment" http://www.ubuntu.com/privacy-policy

[Soul-Sing]

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

[agillator]

Regarding SELinux, as I understand the story it definitely does have 'NSA code' since the NSA and the open source community developed it jointly. But the key is 'open source'. Nothing is hidden. The community had/has access to every bit of source code, in fact creating some/most of it. A little difficult to hide anything under those circumstances. As deadflower pointed out, the same is true of the rest of Ubuntu/Red Hat/Slackware/CentOS/etc. since it/they is/are open source. A little difficult to hide something nefarious. Now, I will not personally guarantee that there is not malicious code anywhere since I am not a programmer and have not personally checked every line of code. But considering that there are thousands of people who are and who have, what do you think are the odds? And you and I DO have the right to check the source code (and compile it all) ourselves if we wish to. Now there are privacy policies explaining what information is gathered if we use certain services. However, use of those services is not required and is not built into the basic code. If the gathering of that information is a problem, don't use the service. This is one of the major strengths of 'open source' and why, I believe, it will eventually displace our current concept of proprietary code. It is a matter of trust. Do you really TRUST Microsoft and Apple? I don't under today's circumstances especially since I don't have to.

[HermanAB]

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.

[tubbygweilo]

killa7,
To amplify upon the above point raised by HermanAB you might consider looking through "How Dozens of Companies Know You're Reading About Those NSA Leaks" to be found on the EFF.org site as it illustrates the extent of third party data gathering.

[3mutts]

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.

Or you can just disable the online functionality if your that worried about it.

Anyways, I don't really think its possible for Ubuntu to have government issued back doors like Windows simply for being open source, if there was we would have a massive compliant about it and Ubuntu will die and people will switch to other Distros.

[killa7]

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?