dx-packages team mailing list archive

[mlaverdiere <1073114@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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