Canonical has root to everyone's ubuntu?

[webstuffg]

This issue has bothered me a lot. Can somebody with authority shed some light to the below which claims that the Canonical has root to everyone's ubuntu installation? "Dont' trust us, erm, we have root. you do trust us with your data already..." What?? If this is NOT true, then we need that statement retracted as it's not even funny. I think the public needs to know with 100% certainty as to what the below means.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_...ting_system%29

quote
Citing concerns about data leaks, The Electronic Frontier Foundation has outlined a number of requested improvements for future versions, asking Ubuntu developers to "make sure that you respect your users' privacy and security."^{[145][146][147]} Responding to criticism of the earlier beta version, in relation to privacy complaints, Shuttleworth said "Your anonymity is preserved because we handle the query on your behalf. Don’t trust us? Erm, we have root. You do trust us with your data already."^[138] The user can revoke Canonical's permission to collect and distribute such data by modifying settings in the Privacy panel.^{[147]
end quote}

Thanks.

[webstuffg]

This is very un-nerving:

https://blaise.ca/blog/2012/12/22/on...ot-privileges/

[webstuffg]

I've been unhappy with the buggy Unity desktop I've posted on a separate thread. And now this attitude from Founder of Canonical. I currently have dual boot Ubuntu and windows, and if I were to install Debian over Unbuntu / window dual boot, will it handle the dual boot between Debian and Windows since I already have a dual boot? I suppose if things screws up, I can always use the windows recovery CD to recover the bootloader. I'm very unhappy with my Ubuntu experience and I'm going to try Debian. I just can't stand the buggy desktop and this attitude from the founder. It's just unbelievably immature and rash. One of the other peeve I have, which I really can't understand is, why did Unity decide to wipe off the list of applications and provided only a search bar? Why did Unity decide to even wipe off the command prompt? I installed Gnome and all those applications are back, though I still have a buggy desktop where icons are sometimes missing. I refuse to deal with this S@@@. Either way, for the record, I'm not sure if anybody of authority can answer this question because as I understand it, there is that 1% where the code in Ubuntu is not open source, and there just might be that backdoor. And in light of the Snowden revelation, who is to say that Canonical isn't in bed with big brother?? I don't need this attitude from Canonical, so go stick it!

[Irihapeti]

Thread moved to Recurring Discussions.

This has been discussed many times already.

[ian-weisser]

Sigh.

If you are concerned about the evil cabal of [Canonical, Major League Baseball, Freemasons, Jedis, Penguins, etc.] having unrestricted access to your data, then encrypt it.

The "we have root" quote is not literal. Masked goons from Canonical cannot SSH into your machine.

The point was that you already trust Canonical and Ubuntu to provide unpoisoned repositories, security updates, Ubuntu One storage cloud, Single Sign On service, IP geolocation server, and much more. If you participate in those services, then those servers already handle your login/password, approximate location, your cloud-stored pornography, the packages on your system, etc. A for-profit company bent on monetizing that data could learn a lot about you from those.

Anonymizing and monetizing your search queries requires user trust...and you are already trusting Canonical with a lot of data about you. You are not required to trust Canonical - you can easily disable or use alternatives for most services, nor are you prohibited from sending false or misleading information to those servers if you choose to use the services.

[prodigy_]

If you are concerned about the evil cabal of [Canonical, Major League Baseball, Freemasons, Jedis, Penguins, etc.] having unrestricted access to your data, then encrypt it.

Or simply migrate to Gentoo. ;)

[ian-weisser]

I dunno. I heard that every keystroke in Gentoo goes straight to the evil computers of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, in league with the just-as-evil United States Forest Service.

[hakermania]

I dunno. I heard that every keystroke in Gentoo goes straight to the evil computers of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, in league with the just-as-evil United States Forest Service.

I've heard that, too

[Elfy]

I heard worse, in fact it's so bad I just can't bring myself to say.

[malspa]

I dunno. I heard that every keystroke in Gentoo goes straight to the evil computers of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, in league with the just-as-evil United States Forest Service.