Canonical being silly again - Can this not be in Kubuntu, please?

[claydoh]

For those of us who run Neon, by the way, you may recall the F.A.Q.:
"How many installs of KDE neon are there?
- We include the machine ID in version update requests in /etc/update-manager/meta-release and hope to have a website up shortly which shows figures on install numbers.
To remove install counting run
sed s,meta-release.*,meta-release, /etc/update-manager/meta-release.

This will be added as an option in the installer when we get a moment."

While only aggregating installed instances, I bet a lot of people do not realize this or forgot about it.

I believe Suse do install tracking the same way.

[oshunluvr]

More FUD. You can OPT OUT. It's Linux people, just OPT OUT.

[Bings]

That Mozilla does something is not indicative of something being a good decision. How long before we start reading articles of "Oh woops, someone configured this wrong and it was actually sending more data than we said it would"? or "Oh woops, the opt out option didn't work". Things go wrong with programs so why create the situation in the first place. Nobody is stop going to stop using a distro because it doesn't have a data collection facility like this but they are surely going to because it does.

KDE has planted it flag firmly in the corner of privacy https://vizzzion.org/blog/2017/09/privacy-software/ so it'll be sad one of the first thing a user sees when they install Kubuntu (or even Neon as it's ubuntu based) is an auto selected privacy collection option on install.

[dequire]

As long as used as stated, I'll be fine with it. And I know the community will be watching like hawks as this rolls out and is administered down the line. Esp. for Canonical, who - as some have stated earlier - already messed up once in the past regarding privacy, although in a different context. I think it would lead ultimately to better hardware and software integration and a better underlying user experience. Also, they may just find out that not everyone likes Gnome 3!* To me, this is no different than the Steam hardware survey (also opt-outable) and far less invasive than the data collection and fingerprinting done by Firefox and Chrome.

For those of us who run Neon, by the way, you may recall the F.A.Q.:
"How many installs of KDE neon are there?
- We include the machine ID in version update requests in /etc/update-manager/meta-release and hope to have a website up shortly which shows figures on install numbers.
To remove install counting run
sed s,meta-release.*,meta-release, /etc/update-manager/meta-release.

This will be added as an option in the installer when we get a moment."

While only aggregating installed instances, I bet a lot of people do not realize this or forgot about it.

* http://www.zdnet.com/article/the-mos...-programs-are/ - KDE comes out #1 here, with Gnome 3 pretty far down the line. I still say Canonical messed up here...

[chimak111]

I'll opt-in or not opt-out. That's the least I can do to help the project.

[jglen490]

There is no positive assertion about NOT collecting personal info, aside from the "We do not collect IP data". While that is important, it's not all there is with respect to the collection of personal information. While there is still time, I may have to opt-out ...

[TWPonKubuntu]

Oh, so true.

And here is the announcement at Ubuntu:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ub...ry/040139.html

Do Read the list thread. It will give you a better idea of what is planned and that other people have the same concerns which are being expressed in our thread, here.

I'll reiterate what I interpreted from the list thread:

1) The system data is to be send ONCE, at install time, unless the installer DEselects the report option.

2) Popcon Will be installed if the installer elects to allow the report. It will not be installed if the installer DEselects the report option

3) Apport Will be installed if the installer elects to allow the report. It will not be installed if the installer DEselects the report option

4) Popcon and Apport would continue to run, sending data back to Canonical, if the initial report is allowed.

5) After the fact, if the end user DEselects the report option, then Popcon and Apport will also be disabled.

I note a comment about pre-installed systems where the person doing the actual OS install, may not be aware of the report option, or that it is opt-out. That would scrape the system data and add it to the database, even if the final system user did not want to be "counted".

Opt-out is not the correct choice on this option. Too many people will simply not be aware. Not everybody is a Linux geek (I are one).

[whatthefunk]

Im fine with this. Dont have a problem with them collecting anonymous info about my system to allow them to make further improvements.

[jglen490]

Oh, so true.

And here is the announcement at Ubuntu:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ub...ry/040139.html

[Qqmike]

TWPonKubuntu: Read my signature... If You're Not Paranoid Yet, You Should Be.

A saying among shrinks: Just because you are feeling paranoid doesn't mean that someone is not following you.

[jglen490]

So I went to the OP's link and used my Disqus signin to log in and make a comment: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2018/02/u...ent-3760597836

I don't know that Canonical is looking there any more than they are/aren't looking here, but at least get your concerns out.

[TWPonKubuntu]

Much depends on our open source watch dogs who look at the code and determine whether it is scraping more data than they claim.

Personally, I don't want a profile of my system to be stored in a database external to my system. I won't give permission for this collection and consider it an invasion of my privacy.

Yes, I didn't just fall of the turnip truck and I realize that everything we do online is "not secure"... BUT I draw the line when my profile is extracted and stored elsewhere.

And this is before we consider whether other data is being scraped at the same time, without our knowledge. Read my signature...

[jglen490]

Again, personalized or generalized? And that will cause a problem, because if they want to know statistics about installations, they have to know something unique about the platform. It will be very easy to collect personal information once they access a machine, it will also be very easy to collect machine level information that would be difficult to associate with a person. Difficult, but not impossible. They need to define how they intend to collect info that is unique to a machine without relating it to a user.

I hope they do, and if they care about their "consumer" base. Yes, Kubuntu is free, and so they may only care if it would be worthwhile to keep supporting Kubuntu or not. They still don't have an automatic "right" to personal info just because the product is without cost.

[claydoh]

As they are interested in knowing which flavours are being installed, this could be useful to Kubuntu, methinks, let alone other ones. Also, just like with the Amazon "fiasco" I trust that the privacy crowd will yell loudly if there are any issues.

[jglen490]

Of course, it depends on being non-personalized. Generalized, O.K. Personalized, I'm gone.