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by rlpb 4692 days ago
Privacy is not an issue with Unity's shopping lens, since Amazon cannot identify you apart from anyone else. If you don't want your search queries to leave your computer at all, then don't use a global search box (just like you don't type those queries into Google, either).

"We are not telling Amazon what you are searching for. Your anonymity is preserved because we handle the query on your behalf." --Mark Shuttleworth, http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/1182
2 comments
ihsw 4692 days ago
Once again, "you can opt out" isn't a serious answer. It's a matter of policy to anonymize the data, and Canonical changes policies unilaterally. The feature isn't under the control of users at all, and that is why it's dangerous.

Canonical has made it abundantly clear that their users have no voice in the development of Ubuntu, in fact they've been quite hostile when confronted with their secretive and authoritarian development practices.

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kryptiskt 4692 days ago
Didn't it download the thumbnails directly from Amazon?
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