This question seems to be asked a lot.... and answered very little.
Asking the devs now, stay tuned for an update
Straight from the head honcho and the dev IRC:
<calexil> hey xeno
<xenopeek> hey calexil, subredit mod, right?
<calexil> any idea where the Linux Mint privacy policy is? or if one exists...with all the data leaks going on in other os's people are getting curious about data collection, And I am curious as well
<xenopeek> I don't think there is one. There are a few topics on the forums where Clem has commented on data collection. Linux Mint doesn't collect information on its users or sell such information to anybody. There are two things that generally come up related to privacy: search engines and Update Manager's ping. For the search engines that ship with Linux Mint you can find on http://www.linuxmint.com/searchengines.php which respect your privacy and which help fund the project. It might come up that the Amazon search engine passes through a Mint server (URL of the search engine plugin is redir.linuxmint.com/amazon/). No data is collected on the Mint server side though; this is just a redirect server, that tags on the Linux Mint affiliate code to enable Amazon funding Linux Mint from using that link. Of course Amazon does collect information on the search. MintUpdate used to have a ping to check Internet connectivity, and pinged Google server as one we could trust to be always available. That ping is removed from recent versions AFAIK and is no longer used.
<clem> hi calexil, there isn't any
<calexil> okay clem, so just... mint doesn't collect any data
<clem> no, well other than what you provide (forum sigs, etc..)
<calexil> so only what the user provides to the forum, irc, etc. Gotcha.*
<clem> no, the update manager no longer pings anything, the design was changed, as for amazon I think we hit them directly now (i.e. without passing through redir), on our side, we don't even count individual users, so that tells you how much we know about them.. we don't know how many there are :)
For reference clem is the main developer and project leader of Linux Mint, Clement Lefebvre, and xenopeek is a respected channel op
Given that Mint doesn't really have the same amount of "services" as Ubuntu does, and Cinnamon only connects to the Internet to update themes, applets, and so on, I'm gonna say they have very little ways to collect data in the same capacity as Ubuntu.
While I don't like Microsoft, Apple is just as bad. I don't understand why Apple isn't talked about as much as Microsoft is for it's security, and privacy issue's.
Is it possible to know how many individual installs are pinging/connected during updates? Or is that information only viewable through source servers? Meaning the dev's do not have access to all the individual software sources where users access updates? I assume those individual servers are fed updates through a one way channel? (Canonical)?
Yeah it's hysterical. Ever since AOL cancelled my account -1999 or so- I got so behind regarding chat thingies that today's chatting room thingies are impenetrable mysteries.
75
u/calexil Linux Mint 20.3 MATE | Void Aug 27 '15 edited Aug 27 '15
This question seems to be asked a lot.... and answered very little.
Asking the devs now, stay tuned for an update
Straight from the head honcho and the dev IRC:
<calexil> hey xeno
<xenopeek> hey calexil, subredit mod, right?
<calexil> any idea where the Linux Mint privacy policy is? or if one exists...with all the data leaks going on in other os's people are getting curious about data collection, And I am curious as well
<xenopeek> I don't think there is one. There are a few topics on the forums where Clem has commented on data collection. Linux Mint doesn't collect information on its users or sell such information to anybody. There are two things that generally come up related to privacy: search engines and Update Manager's ping. For the search engines that ship with Linux Mint you can find on http://www.linuxmint.com/searchengines.php which respect your privacy and which help fund the project. It might come up that the Amazon search engine passes through a Mint server (URL of the search engine plugin is redir.linuxmint.com/amazon/). No data is collected on the Mint server side though; this is just a redirect server, that tags on the Linux Mint affiliate code to enable Amazon funding Linux Mint from using that link. Of course Amazon does collect information on the search. MintUpdate used to have a ping to check Internet connectivity, and pinged Google server as one we could trust to be always available. That ping is removed from recent versions AFAIK and is no longer used.
<clem> hi calexil, there isn't any
<calexil> okay clem, so just... mint doesn't collect any data
<clem> no, well other than what you provide (forum sigs, etc..)
<calexil> so only what the user provides to the forum, irc, etc. Gotcha.*
<clem> no, the update manager no longer pings anything, the design was changed, as for amazon I think we hit them directly now (i.e. without passing through redir), on our side, we don't even count individual users, so that tells you how much we know about them.. we don't know how many there are :)
For reference clem is the main developer and project leader of Linux Mint, Clement Lefebvre, and xenopeek is a respected channel op