Ubuntu Wants To Collect Data About Your System -- Starting With 18.04 LTS (fossbytes.com)

In an announcement on Ubuntu mailing list, Will Cooke, on behalf of the Ubuntu Desktop team, announced Canonical's plans to collect some data related to the users' system configuration and the packages installed on their machines. From a report: Before you read anything further, it's important to note that users will have the option to opt-out of this data collection. The company plans to add a checkbox to the installer, which would be checked by default. The option could be like: "Send diagnostics information to help improve Ubuntu." As per your convenience, you can opt-out during the installation. An option to do the same will also be made available in the Privacy panel of GNOME Settings. With this data collection, the team wishes to improve the daily experiences of the Ubuntu users. It's worth noting that the collected data will be sent over encrypted connections and no IP addresses will be tracked. To be precise, the collected data will include: flavour and version of Ubuntu, network connectivity or not, CPU family, RAM, disk(s) size, screen(s) resolution, GPU vendor and model, OEM manufacturer, location (based on the location selection made during install), no IP information, time taken for Installation, auto-login enabled or not, disk layout selected, third party software selected or not, download updates during install or not, livePatch enabled or not.

Comments

Debian Popularity Contest

[mccalli]

Looks like the Debian Popularity Contest mixed in with some hardware reports. Doesn't look that odd to me.

Re: Debian Popularity Contest

[Gavagai80]

I'd suppose they're tracking whether there's network connectivity during the installation process (to make decisions about building options that require it), which can be remembered and reported later on once connectivity has been established hours or days later. Also the type of connectivity (wired vs. wifi vs. cellular) could be relevant.

Opt in!

[i_ate_god]

> Before you read anything further, it's important to note that users will have the option to opt-out of this data collection.

or maybe users should have the option to opt-in instead?

Re:Opt in!

[dkman]

Collection practice is always going to be "on" by default so the person who doesn't know anything or is click happy is going to feed into it. I don't blame any corp for going that route, so long as they give me the option up front to opt out.

The only part I have an issue with is "auto-login enabled or not" because of security implications. That should always default to off.

Re:Opt in!

[TheRaven64]

I'd generally prefer opt-in for all of this kind of thing, but the problem is that if you need to opt in, then most users won't. You'll end up with vastly skewed data, which can be worse than no data at all. Ideally, you'd want at least an option of sending a 'I have installed Ubuntu but you can't have any other data about me' message and hope that most people would click that rather than the complete opt out, so that you get a rough idea of the number of people that didn't opted in.

No network connectivity

[slipped_bit]

"Fascinating! We haven't received a single report that indicated no network connectivity."

Unpopular decision to get virtually nothing?!

[CustomSolvers2]

"to improve the daily experiences of the Ubuntu users" they will be collecting "flavour and version of Ubuntu, network connectivity or not, CPU family, RAM, disk(s) size, screen(s) resolution, GPU vendor and model, OEM manufacturer, location (based on the location selection made during install), no IP information, time taken for Installation, auto-login enabled or not, disk layout selected, third party software selected or not, download updates during install or not, livePatch enabled or not"?! How could that goal be accomplished with so poor means? I can only think of one type of actions: spamming, targetted advertisement or any other form of custom nagging. Without forgetting about the potential security implications of an eventual data breach! And you let it enabled by default (the disabled alternative would have looked much more user-concerned)! And within the Linux community, which is precisely well known for not being too understanding with this kind of things?! Why? Potentially losing so much to get almost nothing?! Workbook example of a bad decision.

Note that I am currently using Ubuntu and, in principle, will install this new LTS version. Curiously, I have recently moved my main machine from Windows to Linux precisely to escape from Windows 10 invasive, controlling, imposing, etc. actions. I will not stop using Linux but, if Canonical starts going in certain direction, I would certainly stop using Ubuntu and all their products.

Since the default is Opt-In..

[QuietLagoon]

... Canonical's plans appear quite obvious... first get the data collection infrastructure in place by collecting innocent data. Then slowly, automatically "opt-in" other data to be collected. Of course, there will be the ability to opt-out. But you'll have to verify that option after each OS update because Canonical's default seems to be opt-in. And since the default will be opt-in, the data collection will be easily overlooked. Canonical's plans towards its users look pretty obvious to me. Their selection of the default "opt-in" makes those plans even plainer.

User Data Collection Hurts Usability

[billyswong]

Power users tend to turn off this kind of telemetries. So what they end up collecting are always habit of less knowledgeable computer users. Features that advanced users need are often looked "rarely used / unnecessary" from such stats. The end result is a wrongly done dumb down of interface.

Now another company fails to realize that and going to mess up their design again.