I've been using Ubuntu for the past few years and have been learning as I go. I didn't much care for the latest version of Ubuntu, so a couple of months ago I decided to switch. I had been interested in Linux Mint for a while, and since it was based on Ubuntu, thought that the transition would be easy.
I installed Linux Mint 11 on one of my computers in May and I liked it very well.
I had been considering installing a dock for my desktop for the past couple of days and decided to do it today. I opened the software manager, searched for "dock" and had a few to choose from. I had heard good things about the Cairo-Dock so I chose that one. I must say, it looks very nice.
As I was exploring the Cairo Dock, I noticed "Recent-Events". I took a look at the recent events and found that it was a list of everything that I had done on my computer in the last week. I immediately thought, how can this be? I just installed this program fifteen minutes ago. Where was it getting this list?
A quick Google search revealed that the list was coming from a program called
Zeitgeist. I recalled reading about this program before and remember thinking it was not something that I would like to have on my computer. According to the Zeitgeist website, the program keeps a log of all of the user's activities and notifications with and from his data. Every time you open a file or visit a website, every time you open or send and email, every time you go on a chat room
it's keeping a log of everything you do. The other day my nephew was over and I plugged his mp3 player into my computer so he could play some songs for me. I didn't save any of the files to the hard drive. I was just playing them. That was in the list of recent events too. Every song was listed, every file I accessed.
I knew that I didn't install this program. I opened Software Manager again, searched for "Zeitgeist", and sure enough it was installed.
I found that Zeitgeist is installed by default on the new versions of Ubuntu and Linux Mint. I know I might be coming off a wee bit paranoid here, but I'm wondering what's next. This whole thing is creeping me out. I almost feel like I've been spied on. I had no idea that this program was there and this whole time it's been keeping a log of everything I've done. I feel like someone could use this to find out things about me, like the fact that I have a bunch of pictures of random people with mullets saved on my hard drive. Someone that doesn't appreciate a good mullet collection would probably think I'm some kind of weirdo.
The information that this program records could prove very useful to a determined hacker. I have recommended Linux Mint to people who want to try Linux for the first time and I doubt all of them are keeping their systems secured.
I think the Ubuntu team should at least let users know about this, preferably during the install. Maybe have a dialog box that says "oh hey. were just gonna install this program that keeps track of everything you do on this computer k?" They should let you choose whether or not you want this program on your computer instead of just adding it without your knowledge.
I don't think Canonical is collecting any of my info from Zeitgeist. I'm not some conspiracy theorist nut. I know it's supposed to be "A new approach adapting the user experience to ones own needs" and it "provides Intelligence for other applications and services to enhance the user experience." whatever that means. It just seems creepy to me and I do not like it.
If you have the new version of Ubuntu or Linux Mint on your computer you have Zeitgeist. If you want to completely get rid of it open a terminal and do
sudo apt-get purge zeitgeist-core libzeitgeist-1.0-1That will get rid of the program. The log will be in
~/.local/share/zeitgeist
if you want to delete it.
I think I'm going to give up on Canonical and try another Linux distro not based on Ubuntu. Suggestions?
