Thoughts on advertisements in Ubuntu 12.10

[txwikinger]

As long as there is transparency and proper notice, I have no problem if
informed consumers make a for them beneficial decision.

However, I starting to become worried how transparent and how well
informed this whole issue seem to be.

Reading the blog and some announcement in one of the ubuntu online
publications, it seemed to me to be a matter of presentation, i.e. the first
time advertisements are delivered *to* the ubuntu desktop.

This thread here seems to put the whole issue upside down, which concerns
me far more, that there is information flowing *from* the ubuntu desktop
to not real defined entities. This concerns me tremendously, not because
of conspiracy, but because of free and informed decision making in regard
of my personal data, its protecting and its legality in different 
jurisdictions. Many
of us know about the "cookie"-directive in the EU that makes it illegal 
just to show
facebook-like, google-+1, etc buttons on a website without prior user 
consent.

Hence my questions are:

1) What exact data flows away from the ubuntu desktop?
2) Where does it flow to?
3) How is the data protected according to the relevant laws?
4) Are the users well informed about this (Apparently I am not!)?
5) Is there an opt-in?

I believe, in the understanding of in particular EU law, but probably 
also other
privacy law like in Canada, et. al., opt-out may very likely not be 
sufficient for such
an intrusion of privacy. Hence, users need to be well informed about the 
nature and
destination of the data transmitted, as well as giving prior consent to 
it if they choose
to do so.

However, I am after this thread very confused who would even need to be 
concerned.
Only people installing the shopping lens (Are there any package 
dependency implicitly
installing it? Is it default?), or everybody who uses unity, or has 
unity installed? Or everybody
who uses any flavour  of Ubuntu system.

I really care less about if Canonical is paid for it or not, I am far 
more concerned about how well
users are informed, and just judging myself at this moment, I have to 
say, the level of knowledge
is very disconcerting!

Ralph

On 12-09-24 11:01 AM, Darcy Casselman wrote:
> I admit, this whole thing has me perplexed.
>
> I mean, I'm still rolling my eyes at all the conspiracy theorists.
> Guys, c'mon.
>
> What has me scratching my head, though, is what's the point of this?
> What use case is it meant to solve?
>
> I kinda get that they want the Dash to be an omni-search thing, with
> lenses for various searches.  So I can see creating a "shopping" lens,
> what value is there to exposing the results on the Home lens?  Is it
> really any more useful to show a Kindle Fire in my Home lens than a
> Bruce Springstein Youtube video when just I'm trying to launch
> Firefox?
>
> I think I'd be happier if they *were* making money off of it.  That,
> at least, would make sense.
>
> Darcy.
>
> On Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 9:14 AM, Russell McOrmond
> <russellmcormond at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Here is my translation of Shutgleworth's blog:  we (cannonical) aren't
>> making money on the for-pay search results, so therefore it isn't an
>> advertisement.
>>
>> While us techies can turn this foreign-search off, less technical users
>> won't know how.  This makes Ubuntu no longer what I can in good conscience
>> recommend to less technical users.  It is commercial advertising, whether
>> cannonical is making money or not. Who is making the money doesn't change
>> that they are ads.
>>
>> --
>> Sent from my Google NexusOne. http://flora.ca
>>
>> On Sep 23, 2012 11:53 PM, "Stephen M. Webb" <stephen at ubuntu.com> wrote:
>>> On 09/23/2012 02:52 PM, Michael Stathers wrote:
>>>> http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/1182
>>>>
>>>> This worries me. Your thoughts?
>>> What are your worries?
>>>
>>> You titled this email "Thoughts on advertisements in Ubuntu 12.10" but
>>> gave a link to Shuttleworth's blog in which he
>>> says up front "We’re not putting ads in Ubuntu."  Do you have a better
>>> source on what's coming in Ubuntu 12.10 than
>>> Mark Shuttleworth, and can you give that link, too?
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Stephen M. Webb  <stephen at ubuntu.com>
>>> https://launchpad.net/~bregma
>>>
>>> --
>>> ubuntu-ca mailing list
>>> ubuntu-ca at lists.ubuntu.com
>>> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-ca
>>
>> --
>> ubuntu-ca mailing list
>> ubuntu-ca at lists.ubuntu.com
>> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-ca
>>