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Stallman: Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do?Stallman: Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do?Posted Dec 7, 2012 22:53 UTC (Fri) by apoelstra (subscriber, #75205)In reply to: Stallman: Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do? by coriordan Parent article: Stallman: Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do?
> I don't know much about this functionality, but it might be harmless. If you're trying to do a web search for "get mail folders", and your browser sends "g", then "ge", then "get" etc. to the server before you manage to type the whole string, then you're sending the server *less* info than if your browser waited for you to type the string.
Not only is it physically telling the server more information (since "g", "ge", "get", ..., "get mail folders" totals roughly the square as many characters as just "get mail folders"), but you are also telling the server how fast you type, what kind of typos you make (and therefore your keyboard layout and whether you are human). If you are typing in the wrong field, it could obtain passwords or other personal information, or at least determine what other programs you're running.
Plus, by sending information every keystroke, you're sending highly-correlated information that can be matched up if you are connecting through some sort of darknet that uses multiple paths.
Not to mention, if you spend a significant amount of time at a keyboard, there is a tendency to use any text-entry mechanism as an extension of your immediate-term memory. So if this leaves your system, the remote server is literally reading your thoughts.
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