[Ubuntu-US-CA] RMS vs. Amazon search results feature

[Grant Bowman]

On Thu, Dec 13, 2012 at 9:55 PM, Jono Bacon <jono at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 13, 2012 at 9:27 PM, Grant Bowman <grantbow at ubuntu.com> wrote:
>> For discussion:
>> http://www.jonobacon.org/2012/12/07/on-richard-stallman-and-ubuntu/
>>
>> I am trying to reserve judgement but the 12.10 install I tried seemed
>> to sacrifice privacy a little too easily and I don't like the idea of
>> money being made by default from Ubuntu for Canonical. At the same
>> time I don't agree with all of what RMS said but some of what he says
>> is true for me. http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/ubuntu-spyware-what-to-do
>>
>> What do you think?
>
>
> "I don't like the idea of money being made by default from Ubuntu for
> Canonical"
>
> What is the objection about Canonical making money in Ubuntu given the
> millions of dollars invested into Ubuntu?

I think trust is the primary issue.

First, that was a partial quote of a sentence and I think not the most
important aspect of this whole debate. Second, I didn't express that
particular sentiment accurately. Perhaps it would be more clear with
an appended "in this way." I am not alone in feeling this particular
implementation crosses a line of trust. Perhaps as you say Canonical
"didn’t get it 100% right". That's why I am trying to reserve
judgement despite it being released in a non LTS version inserted at
the last minute from what I heard. If Canonical had submitted a
similar feature to Debian do you suspect it would have gotten accepted
or is Canonical somehow abusing it's specially entrusted power? People
trust this environment because it is level and open. This feature as
implemented so far is neither.

Other entities including but not limited to the EFF have expressed
their concerns pretty well.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/10/privacy-ubuntu-1210-amazon-ads-and-data-leaks

Where is the money coming from? Facebook, Twitter, BBC, Amazon and
other third parties of Canonical's choosing, right? This is done by
keylogging "send your keystrokes" from all the searches on a default
install with no notice to end users, right? Making money from work one
does is what Canonical has carefully done in the past. I believe
Canonical is trying to find the balance and is doing a better job than
anyone else I think in this regard.

I hope this discussion can stay on topic and not get derailed by my
misstating my position on that one point.

Grant