Comment 28 for bug 402767

Il 24/07/2009 19:16, Rick Spencer ha scritto:
> Change #2 is just an artefact of collecting the usage data. We could
> only see what parts of the FF UI people were using to do searches if we
> sent them to our custom page. This usage data is important because it
> helps us channel design and development resources to useful features,
> and is also important because it can be tied to revenue generation.
>
> Generating revenue that supports the project is a feature, not a bug.
> However, we are mindful of not throwing the baby out with the bath
> water. In other words, we must strike the balance of continuing to
> deliver a top notch user experience while taking advantage of revenue
> opportunities.
>

Therefore here for the first time you (as the "ubuntu/canonical" entity)
are admitting that

1) you are generating revenue from the attempts of people to search
google and

2) you are collecting search data of your users without they being informed

Now let us stop the big lie. I don't think you can appeal to the code of
conduct if people gets upset with that. I think you already violated too
many principles that lead the ubuntu community by hiding the two facts
above behind silence. You perhaps don't realise that people pushing
ubuntu and making it the success it is, are the same people who don't
like being tricked or tracked. Even if we send our data to google every
day, this does not imply that we want to send our data to ubuntu. And
without knowing it!

Even if this is done by others, we do not expect ubuntu to do that. This
is a break of the trust we have in your distribution.

If you inform us, then we may decide so. I would not mind at all. I
would be even HAPPY to make you earn cash with my google searches. But I
want transparency and I do not see it in how things were done.

And having a poorer search for ubuntu users w.r.t. windows users is
something that I certainly don't want by default.

I am working for you

https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/~vincenzo-ml

every day but this is only because I believe in the usual principles of
free software. I consider this whole custom search thing an incident in
this path. Not because of the search, because of the fact it has been
hidden. If you don't valuate the trust I put in you, I can close the 133
bugs with random replies and change distribution.

The custom search was already there in hardy. So *this did not start in
karmic for testing purposes*. Let's not lie about that. This is
something an Italian politician might have said on TV, but jaunty has
been released months ago. And you already made money and gathered data
with that.

Let me be clear: I don't want to, and can't, dictate over what you put
in ubuntu. I'd be happy to keep cooperating and stop polemic comments if
I felt that everything had been transparent.

But you have to be honest with people and keep them informed. That's
what I expect from you. And that's what I have not seen. I also asked on
the ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list, more than one year ago, and did
not receive a reply. That's not nice at all. Today I asked again, but I
already had understood what you were doing. Here is the old message.

http://<email address hidden>/msg04111.html

I do not question that you put anything you like in your software but
why isn't there a link below the search that explains the above? I do
not see the word "custom" anywhere in the ubuntu start page and
certainly the search field (top right of the window) looks like the
standard firefox one.

It *looks like* it was better for you all to fool people into thinking
that the search is the standard one. It looks like the explanation is
the same that would drive microsoft doing that.

If you have a better explanation, it would make me feel much better if
you could share it with us.

Vincenzo