GNOME's Zeitgeist Engine Has Its First Release

[BlackStar]

1 - It's not a matter of data being available over the network. It's a matter to have a tool that will scrutinize you and write down all that nicely indexed.
2 - ISP cannot log everything, I think it's far from everything (I work for a million access points ISP). Google keeps the IPs of searchs... hum maybe not all of them... This is so much data that it seems unrealistic. Worst case, they select the searchs to log based on specific criterias.
3 - You missed the point, if you are rooted, it's not a good reason to provide nicely indexed data to the attacker.

It's a trade off... but people should be aware what this tool does in the background.
Soon "anonymous desktop" like "anonymous browsing" ?

1 - amen! It's about time computers started doing that instead of users having to categorize everything by hand. What's the point of 'Documents', 'Pictures' and 'Videos' directories? The metadata is there, sort it out for me machine slave!

Nicely indexed = the future.

(Note: I'm not saying that Zeitgeist will do that, just that it's desirable).


2 - The EU requires all ISPs to log *every single* connection for a period of 6 - 24 months (at the goverments' discretion). Google has managed to put its 'google analystics' tracker into half the web. Even with private browsing (no tracker cookies) it can log both your short- and long-term browsing habits, even if you don't use google search, youtube or gmail.

A lot of data? Yes. Unrealistic? No.

What's worse, this data tells more than enough about your personality and it's already logged (no need to even touch the 'social networking' craze of late.)

Paranoia? Yes! Warranted? Probably. (This is an open source community we are talking about, anyway, we all care about privacy).

My point is that a desktop indexing/tracking tool is hardly an invasion of privacy. It's there for your *own* use. Its data is not stored on some third-party server (I fucking hope!) - it's on your disk to use or delete as you like.


3 - sorry, but if you are rooted you are fucked no matter what. It doesn't matter if your data is indexed or not - it's there in plain view (including your passwords and everything else you'd wish to hide). Hell, the attacker could run an indexer on the spot if he wished.

Frankly, there's only one way to protect your privacy 100%: pull an RMS and disconnect from the internet. Afterwards, get rid of your credit cards, bank accounts, car, house, fake a death and go live on some rock. :P

A tool like Zeitgeist... simply doesn't matter to your privacy. It's like optimizing a bubblesort with SSE - pointless.

[Pfanne]

im pretty sure the zeitgeist developers will know of the urge for privacy many of the open source users have, so im pretty sure there will be an easy way to stop the history for a few minutes and then turn it on again...
maybe someone can write a nice program that adds fake events for the time you are trying to do whatever it is you want to do...
and if you dont like it just turn it off...
im pretty sure the gnome project wont force this down your throat!

[sylware]

Erm, how about no? Unlike browser cookies third parties won't have access to Zeitgeist over the network. It's apples to oranges.

If you really care about privacy that much, encrypt your emails (you aren't using GMail or Hotmail I hope?) and access the internet through Tor. Anything less and is for naught: your ISP already keeps a complete history of your connections and data movement; google is close behind.

The ability to abuse something like Zeitgeist is simply a non-issue compared to the above. Sure, someone could root your system and copy your Zeitgeist history, but then you are toast anyway.

1 - It's not a matter of data being available over the network. It's a matter to have a tool that will scrutinize you and write down all that nicely indexed.
2 - ISP cannot log everything, I think it's far from everything (I work for a million access points ISP). Google keeps the IPs of searchs... hum maybe not all of them... This is so much data that it seems unrealistic. Worst case, they select the searchs to log based on specific criterias.
3 - You missed the point, if you are rooted, it's not a good reason to provide nicely indexed data to the attacker.

It's a trade off... but people should be aware what this tool does in the background.
Soon "anonymous desktop" like "anonymous browsing" ?

[RoboJ1M]

- They try to imitate both the Apple and Microsoft in a crappy and unoriginal way.

Seriously, they need to start their own path and not copycat the other main platforms in such an extreme way. Linux wust stay innovative and free.

You know, it took me years of copying other people's recipes to make my dinner before I could make up my own.

And for the record, I think this is very interesting. So far it's one of those what-the-hell-is-it-even-for and i'm-sticking-with-what-i-know things, but lets face it:

File Managers and dumb hierarchal (?) file systems suck. Time for something new that works please!

I remember when I first saw iTunes on my gf's eMac. I didn't understand the point. Then I saw her find a track using a single search box without having to know where the file was on the disk. Always thought that was pretty much how everything should work.

J1M.

[BlackStar]

There are indeed some pratical benefits to use such tools... but at the time of features like anonymous browsing... it's a bit awkward. Big Brother will be watching you more easily with such a tool.

Erm, how about no? Unlike browser cookies third parties won't have access to Zeitgeist over the network. It's apples to oranges.

If you really care about privacy that much, encrypt your emails (you aren't using GMail or Hotmail I hope?) and access the internet through Tor. Anything less and is for naught: your ISP already keeps a complete history of your connections and data movement; google is close behind.

The ability to abuse something like Zeitgeist is simply a non-issue compared to the above. Sure, someone could root your system and copy your Zeitgeist history, but then you are toast anyway.

[sylware]

There are indeed some pratical benefits to use such tools... but at the time of features like anonymous browsing... it's a bit awkward. Big Brother will be watching you more easily with such a tool.

[timofonic]

Seriously... Canonical and Novell are infecting the Linux ecosystem in the worst way.

- First they make grow Gnome and GTK, but they make it a flawed project in the process. Tons of wrong design choosings.

- Then they make spread MONO as a dependency.

- They infect Debian too, installing MONO by default.

- They try to imitate both the Apple and Microsoft in a crappy and unoriginal way.

Seriously, they need to start their own path and not copycat the other main platforms in such an extreme way. Linux wust stay innovative and free.

Of course average users need a similar environment, but they need to provide something fresh and interesting.

The last experience I had with Ubuntu was horrible, deadly slow compared to another environments and their "easy way" was not so comfortable for certain situations. I'm a lot more keyboard driven and preferring other kind of window managers, but as mouse-based window managers I would prefer other alternatives.

[duby229]

As I said, this feature is orthogonal to regular backups. I understand your urge to post, but make sure you understand someone's point before clicking the reply button.


Illegal activities = tongue in cheek.

If you have legitimate reasons to avoid this feature, just turn it off. Feeling paranoid? Compile it out.

It's not as if this were some obligatory spyware forced down your throat by the government.

It's not always that easy. In this case this functionality will be built on to be critical to the UI. The work that your seeing now is just the initial framework being hammered out. The UI work will come later once the framework issues are resolved.

[BlackStar]

And they'll lose them all if they're not backed up on a remote system. Compulsory version control is just silly; there's a reason why even Microsoft didn't copy it from VMS.

As I said, this feature is orthogonal to regular backups. I understand your urge to post, but make sure you understand someone's point before clicking the reply button.

Who said anything about illegality? There are many perfectly good commercial and personal reasons for not wanting your computer to save away every file you ever access and every web site you ever visit. Heck, Mozilla just put a new feature into Firefox to _prevent_ it from logging what you do because many users wanted that.

Illegal activities = tongue in cheek.

If you have legitimate reasons to avoid this feature, just turn it off. Feeling paranoid? Compile it out.

It's not as if this were some obligatory spyware forced down your throat by the government.

[Yfrwlf]

You know the Firefox smart search bar? Same sort of concept. Making histories and such return things that are more useful and more relevant to users. Gnome 3 is trying to base the desktop around getting you to the media and programs you want faster, putting less focus on "file managers" and more focus on "event managers".

Hey, actually that's a pretty good term to use IMO...but I'm sure someone already thought of it first.

But I think it's a good thing, turning the computing experience into the same kind of easy access experience that, say, gaming consoles have, or media centers give you, etc. If you do have a need to access files/programs through the traditional methods, of course the file managers and consoles will still be available, but I think easier-to-use UIs will only increase in traction for the mainstream computing experiences.

P.S., think Minority Report, etc. Only time will tell as to what computing experiences are desirable but I definitely think there is room for these environments.