Update bug report (after a year, and now with more valid arguments :) )
** Description changed:
When installing a fresh installation of Ubuntu, the permissions for the
home folder of the users are set to be accessed by anyone. In other
words they are able to browse through your folders. This might be
arguably a privacy or security issue. No other users should be able to
view the users folders unless the user himself makes it so.
A workaround for this is by manually setting the home folders
permissions to deny every action by others users. Only the user himself
should have full access and actions while the users in his same group
may have access to the files.
+
+
+ ***UPDATE*** as of 11 August 2008
+
+ The situation is as following: by default, your "Home" folder is accessible
by both "members" and "others".
+ The main idea is that you have a special folder called "Public" which is used
for data sharing between other users on the same system.
+
+ Your "Desktop" folder does have the right permissions. But for people
+ like me who like to keep a clear desktop, I move my folders directly in
+ my account folder where the "Desktop" and "Public" folder lies. These
+ folders however do not have the appropriate permissions set, and are
+ (depending on previous assigned permissions) readable or worse.
+
+ You might think that it's not a big deal because the files aren't
+ executable. Ever heard of spying? Sensible data can't be executed, but
+ read. So I believe it's very important to inform people about that. I
+ had to figure that out the hard way.
+
+ If it's not a physical user who sniffs around your stuff, it could be a
+ virus that got lucky and hijacked an account with half administrative
+ rights.
+
+ The gravity of the situation depends entirely on what kind of files are
+ exposed (secret document.... friends phone numbers....secret girl friend
+ pictures.... ) and their permissions.
+
+ This issue can be solved quite easily by..... I don't know..... make a
+ dialogue box pop-up informing the users who want to store their files
+ directly into their "Home" folder, that they need to pay close attention
+ to their file's permissions, even if they are the only users of their
+ system.
** Tags added: data folder home permissions personal public
** Changed in: ubuntu
Status: Won't Fix => Incomplete
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Home folder permissions
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/136743
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