Comment 73 for bug 402767

Since the "user trust" bug was marked as a duplicate of this one, I hope you don't mind me reposting this comment here:

User trust has been broken. The only way to track usage data in free software, anonymous or not,
is by explicitly asking users to opt in, in big letters. Plain and simple.

The extension should be removed immediately and
 https://code.edge.launchpad.net/~asac/firefox/ubuntu.me001
reviewed for privacy breaches.

Finally, if the extension is resubmitted for inclusion, it should be different from google.xml (the default google search in firefox) So that users can switch away from it if they prefer to support mozilla with searches rather than ubuntu.

http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~asac/firefox/ubuntu.me001/annotate/head%3A/debian/patches/google_code.patch

I would also like to point out that one of the (older) patches
http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~asac/firefox/ubuntu.me001/annotate/head%3A/debian/patches/ubuntu_codes_amazon.patch
indicates that an amazon search is similarly affected. (ie: ubuntu rather than mozilla makes money off amazon searches through the search bar, whether data is forwarded, only ubuntu and amazon know)

Finally, Alexander should make it clear how exactly the usage data is collected. It seems to me that none of the public patches (latest revision 2009-07-14) implement a direct data transfer. It appears like the version of the search extension and new-tab site are different from those in the publicly visible repository (note the lack of chrome/content/tab.html in the patchset). Maybe that file is autogenerated somehow but I doubt it.