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Free Software Leader Richard Stallman: Amazon Search Integration In Ubuntu Amounts To Spyware

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http://techcrunch.com – Free software leader Richard Stallman claims Ubuntu amounts to spyware with Amazon search integrated into the “dash” of its Unity interface. He is calling for developers to shun the open-source operating system. Canonical is the company behind Ubuntu. Stallman says the advertising search results amount to surveillance and argues that personal data is on Canonical’s servers. While Canonical does not send the data back to Amazon, the fact that the data resides on Canonical’s systems is enough for Stallman. Stallman, who has huge influence as the leader of the Free Sof (IT news)

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Submitted by qq124 on 12/08/2012

Stories similar to Free Software Leader Richard Stallman: Amazon Search Integration In Ubuntu Amounts To Spyware

 In a recent post on the Free Software Foundation blog, Richard Stallman has called upon Linux advocates to reject Ubuntu, claiming the Amazon search integration in the Ubuntu 12.10  contains dangerous "surveillance code."  The creator of the GNU Project accuses Canonical for including a search feature in the latest version that sends packets to Canonical's own servers without al

Just when we thought it was over, the saga surrounding Canonical‘s controversial integration of Amazon.com search features into Ubuntu resurged this week as Richard Stallman, president of the Free Software Foundation, denounced the feature as “spyware.” Depending on whether you think Stallman is a messianic visionary or a self-caricaturing embarrassment to the open source communi

A quanto pare è tempo per Richard Stallman di nuove battaglie: a fronte della nuova feature di Unity per cui vengono visualizzati nella Dash risultati attinenti alle ricerche che vengono da Amazon, il leader della Free Software Foundation non si è risparmiato nel suo ultimo intervento affermando che “Ubuntu contiene spyware“. Affermazioni forti senza dubbio, ma è da considerare l&#8217

Written by: Sam Varghese | Published in: Open SourceThe founder of the Free Software Foundation, Richard M. Stallman, has slammed Ubuntu over its provision of Amazon search results for a regular search, prompting Canonical's community manager, Jono Bacon, to hit back, accusing him of spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD).

Jono Bacon, Ubuntu’s Community Manager, had to apologize to Richard Stallman, founder and president of the Free Software Foundation, after a rather harsh blog post.Richard Stallman is not a friend of Canonical. He criticized the company and their operating system, Ubuntu, in the past. Recently he had some pretty po... (read more)

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has just released in tandem the second edition of its president and founder Richard Stallman's selected essays, Free Software, Free Society, and his semi-autobiography, Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman and the Free Software Revolution.

Good to see the old warrior is still fighting the good fight:

Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do? http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/ubuntu-spyware-what-to-do

Go Richard!!

Unity Dash spyware fix 13 weeks 22 hours ago

bug 1111808

Mark Shuttleworth explains info entered in dash sent to Canonical servers and on to Facebook and Amazon.

So to clarify: even if you disable shopping lens, your data - through dash is recorded by Canonical and available for paying third parties. I mistakenly thought the personal data recording was local to the user, for searches on your own system.

Ubuntu without any branding 35 weeks 6 days ago

(This question is out of interest and not because I have a problem with my machine. If it belongs to some other forum, tell me instead of downvoting me.)

I remember that a couple of years ago, there used to be a fork of ubuntu that included only free software. (Free as Richard Stallman would like.)

It did not have firefox, had iceweasle.