See this: Ubuntu Shopping Lens (Scopes) Declared Legal in the UK and Most Likely in the European Union
http://m.softpedia.com/ubuntu-shopping-lens-scopes-declared-legal-in-uk- and-most-likely-in-european-union-453843.html http://attheedgeoftime.blogspot.ro/2014/08/ubuntu-shopping-lens-deemed- legal-by-uk.html It seems that the core of the reasonning of the UK Information Commissioner's Office (IOC) reads this way: "In particular, we consider the (first time displayed, and later ‘iconised’) legal notice added by Canonical Ltd to the bottom right corner of the Dash, when Amazon searches were introduced, to have reasonably ensured compliance with the DPA for the introduction of those searches. We also consider Canonical Ltd to have made reasonably available to Ubuntu users suitable information to assist people in limiting searches undertaken, or in removing the feature involved from their installation. " White all due respect, this reasonning seems pretty weak to me, for these 2 reasons: 1) The "magical" legal notice is no longer in the dash (since 13.10) and is now hidden (and still untranslated) in the obscure "Diagnostics" tab, in the "Security and Privacy" panel; 2) I may have missed something but I really don't see where/how "Canonical Ltd to have made reasonably available to Ubuntu users suitable information to assist people in limiting searches undertaken (but I aknowledge that they did the right thing to allow users to remove/switch off the feature involved from their installation). That said, IMHO as a really great FLOSS project, Ubuntu (and its sponsor, Canonical), shoud do more than look for minimal compliance with privacy laws/regulations in some contries/regions. It should try to be up to higher standards and target EFF recommandations compliance. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of DX Packages, which is subscribed to libunity in Ubuntu. Matching subscriptions: dx-packages https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1073114 Title: Online Smart Scopes Do Not Respect User Privacy Status in “libunity” package in Ubuntu: In Progress Status in “unity-lens-shopping” package in Ubuntu: In Progress Status in “libunity” source package in Quantal: Won't Fix Status in “unity-lens-shopping” source package in Quantal: Won't Fix Status in “libunity” source package in Raring: Won't Fix Status in “unity-lens-shopping” source package in Raring: Won't Fix Bug description: See this from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a well respected "international non-profit digital rights advocacy and legal organization" (as described on Wikipedia): https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/10/privacy-ubuntu-1210-amazon-ads- and-data-leaks Obviously, despite some improvements that have came late in the 12.10 development cycle, there are still serious privacy concerns with the unity shopping lens. To be more precise, here are the main problems to be fixed according to EFF: - Disable "Include online search results" by default. - Explain in detail what Canonical does with search queries and IP addresses, how long it stores them, and in what circumstances it gives them to third parties. - Make the Search Results tab of the Privacy settings let users toggle on and off specific online search results, as some users might want Amazon products in their search results, but never anything from Facebook. Here is another related bug: #1055952 Direct data leaking to Amazon: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity-lens- shopping/+bug/1055952 ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10 Package: unity-lens-shopping 6.8.0-0ubuntu1 Uname: Linux 3.5.6-030506-generic x86_64 NonfreeKernelModules: wl ApportVersion: 2.6.1-0ubuntu6 Architecture: amd64 Date: Tue Oct 30 06:35:38 2012 InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-02-12 (260 days ago) InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release amd64 (20111012) MarkForUpload: True SourcePackage: unity-lens-shopping UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to quantal on 2012-09-28 (31 days ago) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libunity/+bug/1073114/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~dx-packages Post to : [email protected] Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~dx-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
