Ubuntu wins Canonical a "Big Brother Award"

[v1k1ng1001]

Who is bringing down other flavors? I'm happy to have switched back to Gnome Shell now that it's matured a bit and I've always loved xfce, especially after 4.8. I was just posting a news story from omgubuntu which is obviously pro ubuntu.

The way I feel about unity is the same way I felt about the way in which Linux Mint's browser was engineered to generate revenue except that I think it's more obnoxious.

[3rdalbum]

I just laugh. The Unity search was useful and desirable until OMG SOMEBODY IS MAKING MONEY FROM LINUX!!!1!!

Video sites getting our search queries? Who cares? But only when it's Amazon and money changes hands, that's when it becomes totally a breach of privacy.

[b1195648]

I switched to linux to get away from this adware information stealing s***. But to my disappointment, ubuntu does log ALL my personal searches on my own computer and sends it to third party by default! It is ridiculous. How this can be done by default is above my understanding. I thought this was a free operating system with good morals. I want to shut ALL of this off and not only that I want to remove all such features entirely from my system. It's a waste of space and a shame to have it on my harddrive. I don't want a single byte of information being sent to ubuntu. The only thing I can agree to send is mabie error reports if anything crashes, thats the limit. Nothing of my personal stuff should be sent anywhere outside of my control. Is it possible to shut this spyware off entirely or do I have to wipe this whole system of my drive and install something better? I do really enjoy the graphical interface of ubuntu and would like to stick with it as long as this privacy problem can be eliminated 100%. Please help me to solve this. As far as I have come now I can only prevent this information to be sent to third party except ubuntu, it feels like they try to fool me nothing is being sent but they still get everything. I get more and more upset reading http://www.ubuntu.com/privacy-policy Even calling this Privacy policy makes me angry, it should be called spyware policy as there is no privacy at all. What can I do to delete everything related to sending ubuntu or any third party any information or search of mine? *EDIT* I'm very sorry for the wall of text. I wrote some nicely formated text here but forum pushed everything together to a mess.

[mörgæs]

Threads merged.

[craig10x]

It's not spyware... Canonical and Amazon could care less about what you are doing with your computer or your personal information...it's just a little way for Canonical to generate some revenue to support the development of ubuntu...so suggestion: shut it off and send them an occasional donation instead....

You can shut off all online searches in, like 5 seconds..."system settings" "security tab" hit the ON button OFF....DONE!

[v1k1ng1001]

I'm concerned about the principle of protecting privacy which isn't a problem for me (I can tweak ubuntu to my liking) but impacts my likelihood to recommend Ubuntu to novices.

The truth is that I just find unity more and more obnoxious as development centers on the features that annoyingly drive revenue and so, even though I can disable those features which share information, I am less and less inclined to do so.

I'm down with 'buntu, just not with Ubuntu per se. My decade of enthusiastic promotion of ubuntu has ended and, at this point, I'm as likely to jump ship to a Debian-based or Arch-based distro.

[craig10x]

@v1k1ng1001: the answer to that is very simple: if they are newcomers and they like it, then no problem...if they don't they will probably ask if there is way to turn it off and they will be quickly informed how easy it is to do so...It's not a matter of worrying about them being monitored or intruded on...they are not being...it's really no worse then when you say, use yahoo for your home page and it targets ads to your searches..

I only turn mine off because i don't care for the clutter myself...otherwise i'd leave it on because i certainly like the idea that it helps develop this great linux distribution...so, instead, i will occasionally make donation to them directly, instead...

It's really a silly reason to abandon Ubuntu which is the most developed, largest linux distro around and is really the only one that has a chance of making linux more mainstream, so it should be ENCOURAGED and not frowned upon...

[v1k1ng1001]

It's really a silly reason to abandon Ubuntu which is the most developed, largest linux distro around and is really the only one that has a chance of making linux more mainstream, so it should be ENCOURAGED and not frowned upon...

Good point. The collaboration with valve and nvidia is encouraging as well as 12.04 showing up on more devices.

I guess I'm feeling let down in part because I've been with Ubuntu since warty and I feel the "Linux for Human Beings" spirit of the project is taking a backseat to the business model.

[craig10x]

Yes...but without the business model...no movement in propelling linux into the mainstream

[GSF1200S]

@v1k1ng1001: the answer to that is very simple: if they are newcomers and they like it, then no problem...if they don't they will probably ask if there is way to turn it off and they will be quickly informed how easy it is to do so...It's not a matter of worrying about them being monitored or intruded on...they are not being...it's really no worse then when you say, use yahoo for your home page and it targets ads to your searches..

I only turn mine off because i don't care for the clutter myself...otherwise i'd leave it on because i certainly like the idea that it helps develop this great linux distribution...so, instead, i will occasionally make donation to them directly, instead...

It's really a silly reason to abandon Ubuntu which is the most developed, largest linux distro around and is really the only one that has a chance of making linux more mainstream, so it should be ENCOURAGED and not frowned upon...

This is the problem. Ubuntu had become the FACE of Linux to those who didnt understand it in a deeper way. It utilized its community to bug test and develop the ecosystem, then used the resulting structure to create a for-profit agenda. We see now a flight of users from Ubuntu to other distros... Linux users are generally much more concerned with the idea that the OS works first and foremost for the user, and only for other entities if configured in such a way.

Canonical screwed the pooch. If you want to integrate ads and send ANY information off the computer, you disable it by default and thoroughly inform the user of what they are choosing to enable. Enabling by default proves that Canonical's intent is $$$ first and users 2nd; Canonical making money is fine with me... Ive donated before... so long as they demonstrate the goal of putting their users first. I fear a community that has so many apologists ready to defend an odious approach to default privacy policy. There is a reason that there has been such a response from blogs and users alike- its wrong, its shocking, and it sucks.

I started on Ubuntu 6.10. I became a member of the Ubuntu Beginners Team once I got familiar with it. Even after I moved on to Arch, I would come here every release day and look for posts from users who I could maybe help (mainly with breaks in the dist-upgrade process). I didnt like Unity when I saw it, but then I didnt like Gnome either- to each his own in terms of function. I dont mind using flash or MP3s, I run Nvidia proprietary drivers, etc. Im not opposed to proprietary technologies so long as it is a choice that I make. When you cross that line- when you demonstrate I am a wallet first and a person second- youre done. Ubuntu is dead to me.

FWIW, I dont include Xubuntu or Kubuntu in this. I just installed Xubuntu on a friends laptop a few weeks ago; they have not violated the premise of free software.

EDIT** Just consider me a former Ubuntu fanboy. Just realize I am only one person in a sea of many, but a person nonetheless. I can assure you I am not alone; I am part of an exodus- a follower in this case of a movement towards software which holds sacred my privacy- an exodus which will become more evident as time moves on.