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Author: KatolaZ
Date: 2019-02-11 07:05 -000
To: dng
Subject: Re: [DNG] ..should we set up our own usage policy wizard script?, was: OpenSSH: delay on beowulf
On Sun, Feb 10, 2019 at 10:44:33PM +0100, Adam Borowski wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 10, 2019 at 08:24:45PM +0100, KatolaZ wrote:
> > But *what* exactly are you claiming is "calling home"? Do you have any
> > real example of what you say or the rant just spilled off the tinfoil
> > hat?
> >
> > Please stop spreading FUD. If you don't need ssh, mail, or whatever
> > otherq service, just `apt-get remove --purge` them.
>
> The problem is that a number of unexpected programs call home. Just one
> example: clementine, a nice music player. By default, it contacts a
> crapload of servers to grab song lyrics, last.fm (whatever that is) play
> counts, something something "scrobbler" (?), and so on. That's for regular
> 100% local .mp3/.ogg/.opus files.


I have no idea of what that is, but since it's a music player I am
pretty sure it is not started "at boot", and from a strictly technical
point of view it is not "calling home", rather contacting external
services (unless it has been developed by last.fm).

>
> Or, our oh-so-beloved init virus -- its "networkd" part, if it fails to
> obtain a DNS resolver via DHCP, the resolver responds slowly during probing,
> or is otherwise temporarily unavailable -- networkd will then send to Google
> information about every single TCP connection you make (as next to no user
> programs cache DNS queries).
>


That's a systemd component, which is not present in Devuan. As such,
it might be your problem if you use systemd, but not ours. And again,
from a strictly technical point of view, it's not "calling home",
rather using an external service without notifying the user. Which is
very bad, but it's not "calling home":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoning_home

since systemd is not developed by google (at least not overtly). We
should be *very* careful about what we claim, and the words we use.

HND

KatolaZ

-- 
[ ~.,_  Enzo Nicosia aka KatolaZ - Devuan -- Freaknet Medialab  ]  
[     "+.  katolaz [at] freaknet.org --- katolaz [at] yahoo.it  ]
[       @)   http://kalos.mine.nu ---  Devuan GNU + Linux User  ]
[     @@)  http://maths.qmul.ac.uk/~vnicosia --  GPG: 0B5F062F  ] 
[ (@@@)  Twitter: @KatolaZ - skype: katolaz -- github: KatolaZ  ]