Slashdot Mirror
Ubuntu's New Firefox Is Watching You
sukotto writes "Ubuntu recently released an unannounced and experimental 'multisearch' extension to Firefox alpha 3, apparently in an effort to improve the default behavior of new tabs and of search. In a response to one of the initial bug reports the maintainers mentioned that the extension's other purposes were 'collecting the usage data' and 'generating revenue.' Since this extension installs by itself and offers no warning about potential privacy violations, quite a few people (myself included) feel pretty unhappy. The only way to opt out is to disable the extension manually via Tools > Add-ons." Most posters to this Ubuntu forum thread are not happy about multisearch.
I've been following this for some time. The multisearch add-on was only intended for the pre-release versions, as part of a research project. It will NOT be included in the final Karmic release.
That is what alpha releases are for, after all: testing. Admittedly, the devs could have bothered to mention that they were planning this, but it's better that they did it here than in the final release.
Funny may not give karma, but +5 Informative never made anyone snort coffee out their nose.
0. Once prerequisites are installed on Ubuntu,
1. Download the source:
ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/3.5.2/source/firefox-3.5.2-source.tar.bz2
2. Unpack source:
tar xvfj firefox-3.5.2-source.tar.bz2
3. Create .mozconfig in the top-level directory:
. $topsrcdir/browser/config/mozconfig
mk_add_options MOZ_OBJDIR=@TOPSRCDIR@/objdir-ff-release
mk_add_options MOZ_MAKE_FLAGS="-j4"
ac_add_options --enable-optimize
export CFLAGS="-gstabs+"
export CXXFLAGS="-gstabs+"
4. make -f client.mk
5. Enjoy objdir-ff-release/dist/bin/firefox
Google and Slashdot have the ads where you can see them. There is no pretense about it. And you know what when you log into a site or when a site has cookies, there will be some tracking. You control the tracking by deleting cookies or not logging in. There are limits to what Google and Slashdot can do because of the security built into the browser
This is different. In this case Firefox is the browser that is supposed to protect your privacy and security. Your browser is supposed to do a job - and it isn't collecting data on you. If the program is going to execute on your CPU and collect data about you to send to someone else, it should be very clear about that intention. This sounds like Firefox has become a Trojan. I wonder if my anti-virus software will warn me about it.
I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
Collecting user data without asking for agreement is wrong, whatever you say.
Any life is made up of a single moment, the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.
ICEWEASEL!
# apt-get update
Get:1 http://your.favorite.mirror/ sid Release.gpg [378B]
Get:2 http://your.favorite.mirror/ sid Release [79.6kB]
Get:3 http://your.favorite.mirror/ sid/main Packages [4514kB]
Get:4 http://your.favorite.mirror/ sid/main Sources [1280kB]
Fetched 5874kB in 11s (523kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
# apt-get install iceweasel ... 68428 files and directories currently installed.) .../iceweasel_2.0+dfsg-1_powerpc.deb) ... ...
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Suggested packages:
iceweasel-gnome-support latex-xft-fonts xprint mozplugger
The following NEW packages will be installed:
iceweasel
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded.
Need to get 8933kB of archives.
After unpacking 27.2MB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://your.favorite.mirror/ sid/main iceweasel 2.0+dfsg-1 [8933kB]
Fetched 8933kB in 9s (975kB/s)
Selecting previously deselected package iceweasel.
(Reading database
Unpacking iceweasel (from
Setting up iceweasel (2.0+dfsg-1)
Please restart any running Iceweasels, or you will experience problems.
# _
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_IceCat
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
it was introduced in Karmic which is an alpha distribution. It wasn't introduced without announcement to the main production users of Jaunty. It may have been introduced without announcement to the Karmic alpha, because introducing it to the alpha *is* the announcement. It was done to see if it was better, results from alpha testing may reveal it is not better, or may reveal it is better. The results of the experiment will help decide whether it should stay, or go.
1) This is the default browser, and Ubuntu shipped it with modifications for years. That they would change the nature of those modifications in an update is hardly surprising. .NET was unremovable through the add-ons dialog, which was the primary reason people were pissed. Ubuntu's really done nothing to break the user trust here. You don't like it, remove it, it will take all of 10 seconds, and be completely gone.
2) The summary says the only way to disable it is by using the add-ons dialog, as if that were some onerous distinction.
Also, it's clear this won't make it into the release candidate. That is the value of an open source OS with a public bug tracker, in which the most minor problems (and the most vitriolic responses) are archived and freely available on the internet.
The .NET one has been updated to uninstall fine.
No, not at all. A few days after it all happened, MS came out with a fix that allowed the addon to be easily uninstalled.
"Ubuntu needs all the good press they can get, I don't understand why they would risk it."
That's pretty funny considering Ubuntu is still in the lead on DistroWatch on all timespans except the last week. For the last week an Ubuntu derivative Linux Mint is number 1 with Ubuntu at number 2.
It's not data mining. If anyone actually read TFA, the extension just makes the default "new tab" page the standard Ubuntu-themed google search. And, like always, if you use their search service they will log your search. It's the same as before, except instead of only seeing the ubuntu search on your home page, you see it on every new tab.
"Debian has no problems violating its free software guidelines to include non-free firmware in its distribution"
In which part of either main or contrib can you find non-free firmware now? Because having freely distributable non-free software on non-free is and always has been quite within Debian's guidelines, you know... (or are you just trolling?)
The information over at Ubuntu says it's only in Koala during the development phase for testing parts of the Ubuntu custom search UI.
There does not seem to be any intention of deploying data mining extensions in any release. It would be nice if there was a little more warning in the dev version, but this doesn't seem malicious. Just a tool to help the developers optimize the custom search UI -- which in turn would generate additional revenue for Ubuntu because more people will choose to use it if it is very well done.
Life is short: void the warranty.
Comment removed based on user account deletion