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View Full Version : [SOLVED] Unity launcher privacy issue



b9k9kiwi
May 18th, 2011, 05:14 AM
I quite like Unity, although I didn't expect that I would.

The launcher, however, has me a little concerned at present.

It functions perfectly well, but the Files & Folders object has as a feature a 'recent' section which displays recently opened files. This is much the same as a menu object available in Gnome, except with the latter you could clear recent files for security or privacy purposes - you cannot do this in Unit.

I have found that if you drag a file from the 'recent' section in the Unity Files & Folders object to Trash it doesn't just delete the shortcut - it deletes the target as well.

It is not at all clear if and how you can configure the File & Folders and the Applications objects to display what you want rather than the default, and the inability to quickly and safely clear recently opened items is something I think is in need of a fix.

Copper Bezel
May 18th, 2011, 05:38 AM
The Recent Documents support is handled by Zeitgeist, which only recently updated upstream with a blacklist manager. See here (http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/05/activity-log-manager-for-zeitgeist-lets-you-blacklist-files-and-apps-delete-your-history-more/) for information and a PPA for the most recent version.

b9k9kiwi
May 18th, 2011, 02:56 PM
Thank you for the pointer - I have installed the manager module which satisfies my needs.

djchandler
May 27th, 2011, 06:41 AM
My solution: complete removal of Zeitgeist via Synaptic, especially since I have no need for Unity either.

Why do we need another tracking application? And is the end user the only one making use of Zeigeist's database?

Yes, I'm paranoid. But that was one of the reasons I started using linux.

Edit: Unity still works without Zeitgeist. No thanks to the PPA for a management application (or something like it) that should have been part of the the Zeitgeist package in the first place. How about a little disclosure? And I'll stick to the officially recognized and supported Ubuntu applications. All too often, third party software is the way windows installations get infected. This kind of opening is just right for a social engineering attack vector.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=10867866&postcount=4

stinkeye
May 27th, 2011, 09:51 AM
My solution: complete removal of Zeitgeist via Synaptic, especially since I have no need for Unity either

Why do we need another tracking application? And is the end user the only one making use of Zeigeist's database?

Yes, I'm paranoid. But that was one of the reasons I started using linux.
Well that's the benefit of open source.
If anything nefarious is going on you'll soon here about it.