what does the "upload system information" button do?

[Ashleyyyy]

i just installed Linux Mint 19 and i saw a "upload system information" button.. what does that do? i thought Linux Mint didn't have data collection?

[lewdicrous]

I think it's a way for you to get your system information from the terminal.

If you try typing this into terminal it might ask you to install it first, because it was not found. Not sure tho

sysinfo

 

[Ashleyyyy]

20 hours ago, lewdicrous said:

I think it's a way for you to get your system information from the terminal.

If you try typing this into terminal it might ask you to install it first, because it was not found. Not sure tho

sysinfo

 

well i clicked it and it opened up my web browser which was linked to a page and it had stuff like my cpu model and stuff on there

[lewdicrous]

1 minute ago, firelighter487 said:

well i clicked it and it opened up my web browser which was linked to a github page and it had stuff like my cpu model and stuff on there

Strange, didn't know of such a thing happening

[Mira Yurizaki]

17 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

i just installed Linux Mint 19 and i saw a "upload system information" button.. what does that do? i thought Linux Mint didn't have data collection?

Software can have data collection such as usage statistics. There's nothing inherently wrong with this because it's useful for software developers to figure out how people are using their software to tweak it or fix issues.

 

The difference here is most of the time, FOSS requires you to opt-in.

[Ashleyyyy]

2 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Software can have data collection such as usage statistics. There's nothing inherently wrong with this because it's useful for software developers to figure out how people are using their software to tweak it or fix issues.

 

The difference here is most of the time, FOSS requires you to opt-in.

yeah but it won't be like Windows and send my browser history and crap to them right? 

[Mira Yurizaki]

1 minute ago, firelighter487 said:

yeah but it won't be like Windows and send my browser history and crap to them right? 

They should be clear what data they're gathering if you read the privacy policy.

[Ashleyyyy]

2 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

They should be clear what data they're gathering if you read the privacy policy.

i only found this: https://linuxmint.com/privacy.php

 

but that's talking about their website. 

[Wild Penquin]

Where is this button, actually? Screenshot?

 

As already said, there is nothing wrong in gathering information if the user is told what and when is collected (and where it is sent, and what it is used for etc.).

 

It should be clear from context what the button does, and to whom it sents the information.

[Ashleyyyy]

4 minutes ago, Wild Penquin said:

Where is this button, actually? Screenshot?

 

As already said, there is nothing wrong in gathering information if the user is told what and when is collected (and where it is sent, and what it is used for etc.).

 

It should be clear from context what the button does, and to whom it sents the information.

i'm not told what it's sending. if you hover over the button it says "no personal information included" 

this is what it sends: 

NOTE: there was a line above the first one but that contains my machine's host name which contains my first name, so i didn't want to share that. that line also included stuff like kernel version etc. 

[Wild Penquin]

So, it is in some System Information -dialog where you found this.

 

From this it should be clear that it is system HW information what it is sending.

 

However, it is certainly not clear where it is sent to and why. Also the information it sents is more verbose than shown in the dialog. Google search comes up with this: https://community.linuxmint.com/idea/view/6616

 

Also, google finds some issues about the button not working in Github.

 

I presume it is something to help the user to upload the setups system information to display e.g. on forums etc. when asking for help. I could be wrong, though.

 

This is something that definitely could be improved, since it doesn't fill the principles I outlined before (and these are also mentioned in the community suggestion I linked above). It is not a huge deal, IMO, since it doesn't send anything unless the user clicks the button. Even then it doesn't intentionally send anything that is private (although hostname etc. are considered private information by many)!

 

Best place to discuss this is the Mint Forums. That way also devs might (finally) improve it, as outlined in the suggestion.

 

Is there anything mentioned about the feature in Mint documentation?

[Ashleyyyy]

@Wild Penquin i dunno about the documentation. 

 

i'm fine with what it's sent, but it's not sending any more stuff unless i click the button again right?

[Wild Penquin]

Yes, you are correct. It is not sending any more information

 

From the Google search I conclude this is just as I said; it's meant to be a convenience feature to add your system information to Github GIST, which you can easily link to whenever asking for help on forums or discussing stuff.

 

Of course, it all boils down to if you trust the people who are making the distribution. Any Linux distribution could be sending information without the users consent, either intentionally or unintentionally. Mint is quite popular and has a lot of users, some who are quite tech savvy. That is something which can protect you - if it was sending stuff without users content, someone would notice (sooner or later, probably sooner), and there would be a huge outcry if that happened.

[Ashleyyyy]

5 minutes ago, Wild Penquin said:

Yes, you are correct. It is not sending any more information

good, i left Windows for a reason

5 minutes ago, Wild Penquin said:

From the Google search I conclude this is just as I said; it's meant to be a convenience feature to add your system information to Github GIST, which you can easily link to whenever asking for help on forums or discussing stuff.

which is true. it's sending way more than people usually mention when asking for help somewhere...

6 minutes ago, Wild Penquin said:

Of course, it all boils down to if you trust the people who are making the distribution. Any Linux distribution could be sending information without the users consent, either intentionally or unintentionally. Mint is quite popular and has a lot of users, some who are quite tech savvy. That is something which can protect you - if it was sending stuff without users content, someone would notice (sooner or later, probably sooner), and there would be a huge outcry if that happened.

yeah i trust Linux Mint. this is just a point that needs some improvement. 

[nanaki]

18 hours ago, M.Yurizaki said:

They should be clear what data they're gathering if you read the privacy policy.

it is kinda like wyswyg but wyswtg (what you see is what they get) Basic system info the same stuff people use/use to post on irc and still post on forums.

 

Quite harmless with no personal info. 

 

And as others said useful to the developers as it shows a wide range of hardware configs mint runs on I wonder if there is a public page showing a average system range like they have for benchmarks. Im curious as to how low end a system and how high end a system mint is running on and where mine fits in at. 

[nanaki]

17 hours ago, firelighter487 said:

@Wild Penquin i dunno about the documentation. 

 

i'm fine with what it's sent, but it's not sending any more stuff unless i click the button again right?

It sends to termbin.com on my system type this 

 

echo some text here | nc termbin.com 9999

 

Im on newest mint well on my desktop any ways.

 

I would guess that in the case of upload systeminfo it is creating a text file and uploading it. So don't spam click uploadsysteminfo you could end up with a bunch of those text files hanging around.