Hello All:
I'm enjoying the experience from Gnome 3 and came upon the Online Accounts feature. My question is whether Google's services being integrated onto the DE made it possible to become a privacy issue.
Thanks for your input.
Since Google isn't affiliated with GNOME, the only data that Google gets is the device you're using. AKA hostname, external IP (maybe internal too) and what OS config you're using. It's all info that's necessary and legible from any website aside from the internal hostname maybe.
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It won't do nothing unless YOU allow it to. and what Gnome will do with Online Sync is nothing different than what Android, iOS or Windows will do.
gnome and ubuntu is known for having security issues... look at their dev's (same people) they want to be next google/ms... this include tracking data and fcking your privacy while they are at it.
That's a rather open statement, I mean, I'm logging into Google from Gnome Desktop, for the purpose of my calendar and retrieving files from Google drive until I find another home for them. Maybe I've misunderstood your explanation or don't understand the actuality.
I don't believe Gnome is data collecting, but I could have missed that as well...
what i meant by my statement, if you wish, you will have to input your email and password. you will get an Email saying GNOME wants to access your account and they'll list reasons. and that's it.
All it really does however is notify you when an email comes in directly from GNOME shell. the process and the way it works is the same on Android or iOS. once you give GNOME shell permission to access your email it will send you notifications from the desktop when an email comes in.
The on-line features are optional. As they make use of the available APIs, so only work if you activate them. KDE has similar functionality though in KDE its optionally installed via certain packages (telepathy package mainly), im not sure if this is the same for gnome.
tl:dr; nothing to worry about. wont activate unless you want to use it.
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Well I'm aware of the Ubuntu Amazon fiasco, but that can be uninstalled with > apt-get remove unity-lens-shopping
now as for Gnome, I was not aware of any similar issues. But i could be wrong.
With the exception of bug reporting there shouldn't be any privacy related issues unless you knowingly use any of the available online optional services (google, owncloud, etc)
Thanks for your clarification. That is what I've done recently but on Android, logging in to services is really an open invite to Google through various channels. Maps to follow your every step, Hangouts to read ytour text msg and the like and etc. Which is why I was curious. I don't want that type of environment on my laptop, and it wont help me if I'm already trying to de-googlize my daily activity by using alternatives like duck duck go, and setting up cloud at home.
Hello Eden !
My brief experience with KDE i did run into it, I spend a ton of my time in the Terminal so I didn't experience it until now, but of late found myself carrying around my laptop for work/productivity and reading books on Linux so integrating some of those services became a viable option, until I could setup alternatives.
If you still feel uncomfortable with it and dont use any of the online account stuff you can remvoe gnome-online-accounts
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