Greg Madden wrote:
> On Saturday 26 August 2006 11:48, Damien Hull wrote:
>
>> I'm doing some work on an Ubuntu server and noticed
>> /etc/popularity-contest.conf. I figured if there is a config file there
>> must be an application somewhere. There is! It's called
>> "popularity-contest".
>>
>> I had know idea what this thing does so I read the man page. It checks
>> to see what Debian packages are used the most. What's bad about this?
>> Well, reading further down the man page I came across the following.
>>
>> Normally, popularity-contest is run from a cron(8) job,
>> /etc/cron.weekly/popularity-contest, which automatically emails the
>> results to Debian package maintainers according to the settings in
>> /etc/popularity-contest.conf.
>>
>> I checked /etc/cron.weekly and sure enough there sits
>> "popularity-contest". This means that the server will run
>> "popularity-contest" once a week and send the results to the Debian
>> Gods.
>>
>> I don't think the information that it sends out is a security risk.
>> However, I don't recall ever seeing anything about the system sending
>> my information out to the net. If any OS is going to do this they need
>> to put a big fat label out there saying that it does this.
>>
>> *Ubuntu Dapper sends out system info once a week with
>> popularity-contest!
>> *
>>
>> This is a Debian thing so I'm guessing all Debian systems do this. This
>> thing has a website. http://popcon.debian.org/
>>
>> Again, I don't think this is a security risk. I just don't want a
>> system sending out my information with out my consent. I've been using
>> Ubuntu for over a month now. Which means there could be a months worth
>> of information from my systems on the net. Information I had no idea I
>> was sending.
>>
>> What other types of information do Debain systems send out? Should I be
>> concerned?
>>
>
> Relax, if you read the prompts during the install you would have noticed,
> Debian at least, asks if you want to participate in ...The reason is they
> use this info to organize what apps to put on the cd''s when released.
>
> You also have to have your systems set up as your own mail server etc, me
> using pop on acs or gci it doesn't work , so I say no when asked.
>
I don't remember seeing any prompt. I'll make time to do another install
and let you know what it says.
For servers I use Ubuntu server and select LAMP. It does the rest. I
just wait. Once it's done I install postfix etc... I don't remember
seeing anything about popularity-contest but there must have been
something.
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Received on Sun Aug 27 13:31:29 2006
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.8 : Sun Aug 27 2006 - 13:31:29 AKDT