Shuttleworth: Unity shell will be default desktop in Ubuntu 11.04 (ars technica) [LWN.net]

Shuttleworth: Unity shell will be default desktop in Ubuntu 11.04 (ars technica)

Posted Nov 2, 2010 8:21 UTC (Tue) by buchanmilne (guest, #42315)
In reply to: Shuttleworth: Unity shell will be default desktop in Ubuntu 11.04 (ars technica) by callegar
Parent article: Shuttleworth: Unity shell will be default desktop in Ubuntu 11.04 (ars technica)

Among many people I know the following is common practice: I need to write a short document or to check the email and I do not have a laptop, so I ask a friend to borrow his laptop for 10 minutes. They give the laptop to me and they do not set up a new user account for this.

They shouldn't need to set up a new user account, they should let you use a guest user account, such as those present on a number of Linux distributions (implemented with the xguest package). This guest account has limited access, e.g. no access to subdirectories of /home except the temporary home directory, even if the subdirectories have lax permissions, and no persistent storage.

If indexing is a huge privacy concern, what about stored passwords in browsers, browser sessions/cookies, temporary files, ability to trojan the account etc. etc. ?

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Shuttleworth: Unity shell will be default desktop in Ubuntu 11.04 (ars technica)

Posted Nov 4, 2010 9:17 UTC (Thu) by callegar (guest, #16148) [Link]

This is exactly the reason why:

- there is an option to erase the files in the trashcan
- tmp directories are typically erased at every reboot
- browsers have a nice friendly menu entry to erase sensitive data.

My point is precisely this one: _before_ systems with indexing enabled by default ship, indexing systems should include options to
_selectively erase the index database_ (and reclaim the used space). Which _none_ of the current indexing system has (certainly not nepomuk, where the only option is to erase a database file by hand, loosing all of the database, including file tags.).

I am not against indexing saying that it is a privacy concern tout court. I am against the fact that indexing is enabled by default and now made a central part of the system _before_ the indexing implementations are completed by adding ways of controlling what is actually indexed. This is IMHO a very gratuitious way to look for trouble.

Would you accept to have a desktop system with a trashcan, where the trashcan cannot be emptied? Or a browser where stored passwords cannot be deleted? So why do people tend to accept so easily the idea of an indexing system where the index database cannot be controlled?