Wait, WTF?: I saw that you spun up and Ubuntu image in Azure

#1

Post by rkwasny » Thu, Feb 11, 2021, 4:42 PM UTC

Wait, WTF?: I saw that you spun up and Ubuntu image in Azure
twitter.com

Re: Wait, WTF?: I saw that you spun up and Ubuntu image in Azure

#2

Post by emteycz » Thu, Feb 11, 2021, 5:01 PM UTC

Isn't it because of Ubuntu the OS sending data home? Doesn't necessarily have to be Microsoft's fault.

Re: Wait, WTF?: I saw that you spun up and Ubuntu image in Azure

#3

Post by rkwasny » Thu, Feb 11, 2021, 5:10 PM UTC

emteycz wrote: post #2

Isn't it because of Ubuntu the OS sending data home? Doesn't necessarily have to be Microsoft's fault.

How would they know the contact details?

Re: Wait, WTF?: I saw that you spun up and Ubuntu image in Azure

#4

Post by andreareina » Thu, Feb 11, 2021, 5:12 PM UTC

emteycz wrote: post #2

Isn't it because of Ubuntu the OS sending data home? Doesn't necessarily have to be Microsoft's fault.

Bit further down the thread:

> Some speculation that the user spun up a @ubuntu image from a marketplace equivalent.

> If you spun up my CoreyOS marketplace image and I did outreach like that, @awscloud would give me the choice of never saying that again, or being booted off of the marketplace. Trust matters.

He's right. Then again, MS and Canonical both put ads into core OS components.

Re: Wait, WTF?: I saw that you spun up and Ubuntu image in Azure

#5

Post by emteycz » Thu, Feb 11, 2021, 5:28 PM UTC

rkwasny wrote: post #3

emteycz wrote: post #2

Isn't it because of Ubuntu the OS sending data home? Doesn't necessarily have to be Microsoft's fault.

How would they know the contact details?

Maybe the user used their domain as hostname.

Re: Wait, WTF?: I saw that you spun up and Ubuntu image in Azure

#6

Post by gigel82 » Thu, Feb 11, 2021, 5:38 PM UTC

This is concerning and we need to know exactly how Canonical tracked down the customer's details.

I tried looking for a privacy / terms of use for Azure Marketplace specifically but could only find the generic one for Azure which is too long to read through.

FWIW, I spun up dozens of Ubuntu VMs in Azure and no-one contacted me :) but I didn't go to the marketplace, just picked the default Ubuntu image in the dropdown.

Re: Wait, WTF?: I saw that you spun up and Ubuntu image in Azure

#7

Post by hertzrat » Thu, Feb 11, 2021, 6:15 PM UTC

People sometimes turn to Linux to avoid tracking. This is slightly awkward PR for the community in that sense. It took years for people to lower their guards after the Amazon search uploads controversy years ago

Re: Wait, WTF?: I saw that you spun up and Ubuntu image in Azure

#8

Post by hertzrat » Thu, Feb 11, 2021, 6:18 PM UTC

rkwasny wrote: post #3

emteycz wrote: post #2

Isn't it because of Ubuntu the OS sending data home? Doesn't necessarily have to be Microsoft's fault.

How would they know the contact details?

Cross site tracking probably makes it pretty easy for companies to learn whatever they want about a person

Re: Wait, WTF?: I saw that you spun up and Ubuntu image in Azure

#9

Post by thih9 » Thu, Feb 11, 2021, 6:19 PM UTC

hertzrat wrote: post #7

People sometimes turn to Linux to avoid tracking. This is slightly awkward PR for the community in that sense. It took years for people to lower their guards after the Amazon search uploads controversy years ago

> Amazon search uploads controversy

If anyone like me needs context: https://www.pcworld.com/article/2840401/ubuntus-unity-8-desk...

Re: Wait, WTF?: I saw that you spun up and Ubuntu image in Azure

#10

Post by lngtmelistener » Thu, Feb 11, 2021, 6:21 PM UTC

rkwasny wrote: post #3

emteycz wrote: post #2

Isn't it because of Ubuntu the OS sending data home? Doesn't necessarily have to be Microsoft's fault.

How would they know the contact details?

There's a service to share it with image publishers. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/marketplace/partner-c...