Does Ubuntu upload personal information by default and without permission now?
I was a little bit surprised to read that the Music Lense will actually send your searches to an online database by default and without asking any permission beforehand. In earlier versions of Ubuntu, things like popcon have not been activated by default and you've always been confident that there are no open ports and no data being transmitted unless you've asked for it. I had difficulties believing this to be true, so I tested it. I searched for an artist of which I have no records, and sure enough, the music lense told me I could purchase it. I then disconnected from the network and searched again and this time, I got no advertisement. A very simple test that anyone can perform, and it indicated to me that the search was indeed being sent to some online service. Does this apply to all my searches? What else is being uploaded about me? I was just about to sniff my network to see for myself when I came to my senses... If people even get the impression that they are being monitored by their own system, then Ubuntu has certainly lost. Technologies like Zeitgeist are great, but they also mean it's more important than ever that absolutely no information is being transmitted without asking permission first and that user always knows what is being sent. The feeling of loosing that confidence was not a good one. I think the advertisements in the lenses, whether it's for software or music, needs to be deactivated. Not only does it validate the notion that Ubuntu is free for a reason, just like GMail, but it might also cause users to loose confidence in their own privacy. It just isn't worth it. Jo-Erlend Schinstad -- ubuntu-desktop mailing list ubuntu-desktop@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-desktop
Re: Does Ubuntu upload personal information by default and without permission now?
Le 11/10/2011 13:43, Jo-Erlend Schinstad a écrit : I was a little bit surprised to read that the Music Lense will actually send your searches to an online database by default and without asking any permission beforehand. In earlier versions of Ubuntu, things like popcon have not been activated by default and you've always been confident that there are no open ports and no data being transmitted unless you've asked for it. I had difficulties believing this to be true, so I tested it. I searched for an artist of which I have no records, and sure enough, the music lense told me I could purchase it. I then disconnected from the network and searched again and this time, I got no advertisement. A very simple test that anyone can perform, and it indicated to me that the search was indeed being sent to some online service. Does this apply to all my searches? What else is being uploaded about me? I was just about to sniff my network to see for myself when I came to my senses... If people even get the impression that they are being monitored by their own system, then Ubuntu has certainly lost. Technologies like Zeitgeist are great, but they also mean it's more important than ever that absolutely no information is being transmitted without asking permission first and that user always knows what is being sent. The feeling of loosing that confidence was not a good one. I think the advertisements in the lenses, whether it's for software or music, needs to be deactivated. Not only does it validate the notion that Ubuntu is free for a reason, just like GMail, but it might also cause users to loose confidence in their own privacy. It just isn't worth it. Jo-Erlend Schinstad Hey Jo-Erland, Thanks for sharing your concern, however this is only for music searches, nothing personal to you is uploaded. It's the same than the automatic apt-get update which is done: there is a request with your ip to get the latest package list, so a connexion on the network you are maybe not aware of. This search is performed by the ubuntuone music scope from the music lens (unity-scope-musicstores) that you can remove independtly from the music lens. This is not at all advertisement, but just a way for people to find the same result that they can perform in banshee with the ubuntuone music store. Just note that you can basically have the same reaction when banshee is looking for a thumbnail of the currently listened albums and we heard no complain about it? I get your reaction is only because you perceive it as advertisement, which is not the case there? What can we do so that it's not perceived this way? Didier -- ubuntu-desktop mailing list ubuntu-desktop@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-desktop
Re: [Desktop12.04-Topic] control center cleanup
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 Rodrigo Moya wrote on 10/10/11 17:09: On sáb, 2011-10-08 at 17:44 +0100, Matthew Paul Thomas wrote: Rodrigo Moya wrote on 06/10/11 15:23: ... * language-selector: we just need ability to install languages and input method support in the region panel to completely remove this I'm working on the design for that one. https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/desktop-o-clean-up-language-support yeah, been seeing your changes to the live.gnome wiki page. I'm starting to work on all the missing pieces in the region panel soon, so will keep you posted of the progress of the implementation Cool. I've completed a draft design now: https://live.gnome.org/Design/SystemSettings/RegionAndLanguage#inline-installation * software sources: also maybe as part of the System Info panel, which does updates? The System Info panel shouldn't be in System Settings in the first place. It isn't settings. It is settings. It allows you to force fallback for the session if you don't have a supported video card, it allows you to select default applications and now, in 3.3, has the Removable Media panel included, so it really does allow to set things. I was referring to the System Info panel in Ubuntu 11.10, which shows only the Ubuntu version and basic hardware specs. It's completely misnamed though. I guess just 'System' or something similar should be enough ... It might be possible to find a name that explicably covers default applications + removable media (Applications, perhaps?), but I doubt it. I think the reason Windows has an AutoPlay panel and OS X has a CDs DVDs panel, separate from file handler settings, is probably that people wouldn't find them otherwise. And it's necessarily even less likely that there is any name that could be given to a panel containing OS version info, hardware specs, session fallback, default applications, *and* removable media, that would make all of them easily findable. - -- mpt -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAk6UbgIACgkQ6PUxNfU6ecp7IgCdGptxT/38nUso9XrfZvAlJh2r T8QAn2hmjXDqbspftO8g59EWqJxlg0W8 =M/9D -END PGP SIGNATURE- -- ubuntu-desktop mailing list ubuntu-desktop@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-desktop
Re: [Desktop12.04-Topic] control center cleanup
Le mardi 11 octobre 2011 à 17:25 +0100, Matthew Paul Thomas a écrit : Rodrigo Moya wrote on 10/10/11 17:09: It's completely misnamed though. I guess just 'System' or something similar should be enough ... It might be possible to find a name that explicably covers default applications + removable media (Applications, perhaps?), but I doubt it. I think the reason Windows has an AutoPlay panel and OS X has a CDs DVDs panel, separate from file handler settings, is probably that people wouldn't find them otherwise. And it's necessarily even less likely that there is any name that could be given to a panel containing OS version info, hardware specs, session fallback, default applications, *and* removable media, that would make all of them easily findable. It's been reported many times, but someone should come up with a well-though design and arguments to convince the designers. https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=647442 -- ubuntu-desktop mailing list ubuntu-desktop@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-desktop
Re: Does Ubuntu upload personal information by default and without permission now?
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 Jo-Erlend Schinstad wrote on 11/10/11 12:43: ... I had difficulties believing this to be true, so I tested it. I searched for an artist of which I have no records, and sure enough, the music lense told me I could purchase it. I then disconnected from the network and searched again and this time, I got no advertisement. A very simple test that anyone can perform, and it indicated to me that the search was indeed being sent to some online service. Does this apply to all my searches? What else is being uploaded about me? I was just about to sniff my network to see for myself when I came to my senses... If people even get the impression that they are being monitored by their own system, then Ubuntu has certainly lost. Technologies like Zeitgeist are great, but they also mean it's more important than ever that absolutely no information is being transmitted without asking permission first and that user always knows what is being sent. The feeling of loosing that confidence was not a good one. ... Apple had an equivalent privacy problem with the iTunes MiniStore five years ago. http://boingboing.net/2006/01/11/itunes-update-spies.html They fixed it by (a) making it opt-in, and (b) explaining it inside iTunes itself. http://daringfireball.net/2006/01/itunes_ministore - -- mpt -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAk6UoVIACgkQ6PUxNfU6ecrp/gCfUsHf1RmluqPv5rsiDe53FWDh 4QAAni1l/Ybbnfiuv4L2Xb2ukcTynpKd =dZGZ -END PGP SIGNATURE- -- ubuntu-desktop mailing list ubuntu-desktop@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-desktop
Re: [Desktop12.04-Topic] Desktop sound theme,effects?
On 10 October 2011 05:08, Martin Pitt martin.p...@ubuntu.com wrote: Gunnar Hjalmarsson [2011-10-08 19:32 +0200]: From a user experience perspective I think this is rather important. If at all possible, I would suggest that Jeremy's http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-desktop/libcanberra/ubuntu/revision/132 is uploaded in 11.10. IMHO startup applications is just about the last place I'd look for sound effects. The audio capplet in control-center seems close, and you can already select a warning noise there (although that's disabled for me right now). The tab says sound effects, so perhaps we can add the GUI there? Though from my POV, no real need to put it back in the first place. This is the documented way of disabling the login sound in Natty: https://help.ubuntu.com/11.04/ubuntu-help/session-loginsound.html My patch would re-enable the first way; the second way was part of gdmsetup which we didn't port to Oneiric. It was also suggested in #ubuntu-desktop to just mute the alert volume in Sound Settings, but I personally like all of the sound effects except for the login sound. It could be argued that the login sound is a startup application and I don't think shipping a completely empty Startup Applications is much better than shipping it with only one item. Jeremy -- ubuntu-desktop mailing list ubuntu-desktop@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-desktop
