Ubuntu made users angry when Amazon results appeared by default on the local search dashboard. It only happened because of an affiliate deal with Amazon, but now Ubuntu plans to extend this feature to other Web sites and they plan on adding direct payments. Datamation focuses on the new feature in the article, “How Ubuntu Turned Search In the Dash Into A PR Crisis.” The biggest concern users had was privacy, but Ubuntu has countered by saying that when they send the data off it will be encrypted. The deal favors Unbuntu more than it does the user. Ubuntu becomes a go-between and its user agreement states that Canonical has the right to share information, including IP addresses, how it sees fit.
Canonical does not seem to be responding well to users’ reactions by avoiding the issue. The users are fighting back and demanding that Canonical give users options to control how their information is used.
Richard Stallman has the most widespread reaction:
Stallman states that Ubuntu has let the rest of the free software community down by lowering its standards. ‘It behooves us to give Canonical whatever rebuff is needed to make it stop this,’ Stallman said. ‘Any excuse Canonical offers is inadequate; even if it used all the money it gets from Amazon to develop free software, that can hardly overcome what free software will lose if it ceases to offer an effective way to avoid abuse of the users.’
Canonical is in the middle of a PR crisis and how they come out on the other side will change how the open source community views them. Ubuntu is the flagship OS for open source, but if it ignores user privacy concerns it could sink. LucidWorks’ search applications are built on Apache Lucene, but the company leaves it up to its users on how to search and share their information.
Whitney Grace, March 26, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search