Canonical wants to get into Data Collection with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

[LAwLz]

46 minutes ago, Legendarypoet said:

What's dangerous?

I think apathy is dangerous. The mentality that you can't be mad over something unless it affects you directly in this moment.

I think it's dangerous because:

1) It shows a complete lack of regard for other people who may be affected.

2) Just because it doesn't affect you today doesn't mean it won't affect you in the future. There is a famous poem I think applies very strongly in these types of situations. It's by Martin Niemöller and goes something like this:

Quote

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

 

45 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

Yup.

 

If we let Canonical do this then every time somebody else does something similar, people are gonna brush it off until nobody bats an eye.

I think it's VERY important to differentiate between telemetry and telemetry though.

The idea that often gets pushed on this forum, that all telemetry is the same and you have to either accept all of it or none of it is wrong.

 

"Oh you're not OK with Microsoft collecting what images you view on your computer? Then you can't be OK with Canonical collecting what language you picked during installation of Ubuntu!".

 

I think that's completely illogical, and that you can do telemetry in good ways. This seems completely fine to me.

[mr moose]

15 minutes ago, yian88 said:

Thanks Mircrosoft and google, and its promoters, and silent promoters who dont care.

Now ubuntu will go down the drain, if the Amazon in search results fiasco didnt already make a huge impact on users who decided to switch to other distro this will definately be a couple more nails in the ubuntu coffin.

I use linux mint and hopefully they remove any data collection that vanilla ubuntu puts in.

Maybe I misunderstand you post, but are you blaming google and MS for ubuntu doing this?

[ItsMitch]

57 minutes ago, BuckGup said:

The steam hardware survey takes more information and people don’t bat an eye at that. 

Doesn't steam prompt you to submit your details and you can decline it? Been a while since the last hardware survey. 

[vanished]

Just now, SC2Mitch said:

Doesn't steam prompt you to submit your details and you can decline it? Been a while since the last hardware survey. 

It does, it asks if you want to or not, and it lets you review what it sends (or maybe it tells you what it will collect, I don't recall), but yeah, it asks.

[mr moose]

Just now, Ryan_Vickers said:

It does, it asks if you want to or not, and it lets you review what it sends (or maybe it tells you what it will collect, I don't recall), but yeah, it asks.

It asked me last time.  Unless it does it anyway and I haven't noticed a few bytes slip out the back.

[ScratchCat]

2 hours ago, mikat said:

it's a dang shitty move, that's for sure.

It pretty much only could be used for diagnosing hardware issues during the install process, hence the install time. This will benefit anyone running strange configurations and almost certainly be used to improve the OS, unlike the data collection of a certain glass related OS.

Additionally unlike Windows or Android (to an extent) one can simply switch distribution or make your own without the telemetry code.

[mikat]

29 minutes ago, ScratchCat said:

It pretty much only could be used for diagnosing hardware issues during the install process, hence the install time. This will benefit anyone running strange configurations and almost certainly be used to improve the OS, unlike the data collection of a certain glass related OS.

Additionally unlike Windows or Android (to an extent) one can simply switch distribution or make your own without the telemetry code.

the shitty part is that it's opt out and not opt in

[Coaxialgamer]

I'm conflicted about this. On the one side the lack of data collection is one of linux's strongest points. On the other , these are not what i would consider "user" data . Its hardware info , not browsing habits and advertisement preferences.

[suicidalfranco]

See? If MS's did telemetry like this i wouldn't have had any issues with Windows 10 at all, but nooooooooooooo they had to go full bat shit insane Scroogle yandere kaioken times one hundred super sayan 4 blue god mode instead. The funny bit, they coined the nick Scroogle 

[mr moose]

9 minutes ago, Coaxialgamer said:

I'm conflicted about this. On the one side the lack of data collection is one of linux's strongest points. On the other , these are not what i would consider "user" data . Its hardware info , not browsing habits and advertisement preferences.

There's nothing to be conflicted about, so a long as a company is transparent about what it collects and you have a choice not to use there product if you disagree then all is well.   

[flibberdipper]

Meh. Annoying but it's not as bad as with Windows 10 so whatever, I guess.

[Drak3]

1 hour ago, SC2Mitch said:

Doesn't steam prompt you to submit your details and you can decline it? Been a while since the last hardware survey. 

Canonical's plan is to prompt through the installer, the same way one checks for updates whilst updating and installing some third party software and drivers.

[Drak3]

2 hours ago, themctipers said:

pretty sure people who were serious about Linux usually didn't use ubuntu / derritives

That's not true, at all.

 

People that are serious about Linux use the distro that's best for them, regardless.

[themctipers]

35 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

That's not true, at all.

 

People that are serious about Linux use the distro that's best for them, regardless.

well mostly the screaming i use ARCH LINUX types

yup true..

[Blademaster91]

2 hours ago, yian88 said:

Thanks Mircrosoft and google, and its promoters, and silent promoters who dont care.

Now ubuntu will go down the drain, if the Amazon in search results fiasco didnt already make a huge impact on users who decided to switch to other distro this will definately be a couple more nails in the ubuntu coffin.

I use linux mint and hopefully they remove any data collection that vanilla ubuntu puts in.

Mint is a much better distro anyway,but this has me concerned other devs will follow with more data collection and why stop there if it means more money?

[vanished]

7 minutes ago, Blademaster91 said:

Mint is a much better distro anyway,but this has me concerned other devs will follow with more data collection and why stop there if it means more money?

The difference between this and what most companies like Microsoft do is a) you can see exactly what they are collecting because it's open source so there can be no conspiracy, and b) if you don't like something, just change it.  Or if you can't, just use the fork someone else makes since you know they will.

[Guest]

12 minutes ago, Blademaster91 said:

Mint is a much better distro anyway,but this has me concerned other devs will follow with more data collection and why stop there if it means more money?

Well Mint is a derivitive of Ubuntu LTS, so we will have to wait and see if they will have it use the same defaults once it's based on 18.04 (LTS)

[mr moose]

17 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

The difference between this and what most companies like Microsoft do is a) you can see exactly what they are collecting because it's open source so there can be no conspiracy, and b) if you don't like something, just change it.  Or if you can't, just use the fork someone else makes since you know they will.

 

I don't understand how it being open source means there can be no conspiracy,  Windows source code is available to government agencies including the EU.  Are we to assume that there is a difference between the two OS's that even though source code is available it still makes one transparent and the other not.  Even the DPA had access to both windows source code and their data viewer. 

[BuckGup]

3 hours ago, SC2Mitch said:

Doesn't steam prompt you to submit your details and you can decline it? Been a while since the last hardware survey. 

Same with this. It prompts and you can decline it

[Okjoek]

I honestly don't care about data collection. It's safe to assume they know everything about me already.

[vanished]

45 minutes ago, mr moose said:

 

I don't understand how it being open source means there can be no conspiracy,  Windows source code is available to government agencies including the EU.  Are we to assume that there is a difference between the two OS's that even though source code is available it still makes one transparent and the other not.  Even the DPA had access to both windows source code and their data viewer. 

In one it's available to the government, in the other case, it's available to literally anyone.  Obviously that makes a difference especially since most of the conspiracies are centred around Microsoft working with the government/NSA etc to collect things.

[NoRomanBatmansAllowed]

Welp, another reason to not use Ubuntu.

[Misanthrope]

You know, I expect whataboutism when this comes up about Windows 10 but I am a bit surprised to see more than a little bit of interference apologetics being posted here.

 

This is fucking garbage: Microsoft gets away with it because they make fucking Windows. Ubuntu is just the pipe dream of a South African millionaire that got bored, they're just going to alienate users away instead of help mass adoption.

[Arika]

3 hours ago, Coaxialgamer said:

 not browsing habits and advertisement preferences.

doesn't matter is the OS collects this or not. your internet browser does at least in some capacity

[divito]

The information is Ubuntu/machine hardware-specific. This is wholly different from any other company collecting your details. People are just ridiculously paranoid.