The Unity Dash is a vertical taskbar that has incorporated a hard drive search as well as a web search from the same location. It is a feature that makes Search convenient since you need not open a browser. The only problem is that Ubuntu has enabled by default its shopping lenses, which is a Canonical (the company behind Ubuntu) euphemism for spying on your search data in order to serve up third party advertisements to you. (As an aside here, I did find it strange that a shortcut to Amazon was placed in Unity by default, and, having noted this oddity, immediately disabled the www search feature from it following installation of the OS.)
Now you may be wondering what is all the hubbub, bub? Windows places shortcuts to third party software all over the desktop. It has become standard operating procedure to fill the Start menu with trial offers and such, the likes of which when they expire, continue monitoring/tracking your every click of the mouse. And that, dear audience, is exactly why Windows is a bloated, spyware/malware filled piece of crap OS that slows down substantively over time as you use it. Prior to Canonical's little end run around user privacy & security, you didn't have to worry about Linux taking note of your internet searches (or anything else) and sharing that info with unknown third parties for unknown reasons. That is exactly why informed users turn to Linux in the first place. But given Ubuntu's increasing popularity with the mainstream, Canonical's management evidently decided that it would slip into the OS a seemingly innocuous spying mechanism, and, when it was called out by Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney and CTO of Freedom of the Press Foundation, Micah Lee, Canonical resorted to behaving like a trademark bully over the use of its name and logo on Lee's site called Fix Ubuntu.
Since the usage of a trademarked name & logo is completely legal for the purpose Lee has used it, and, falls under Fair Use provisions of copyright and trademark law, Canonical has demonstrated itself willing to abuse the law in order to silence critics. And that makes it no better than Microsoft or any of the other for-profit Fortune 500 companies that own the US government.
Lee has since included the following disclaimer which may be the only time in history that the word idiot has been used to nicely remind a trademark bully like Canonical that Fair Use is in fact legal.
<Excerpt from Fix Ubuntu>
Disclaimer: In case you are either 1) a complete idiot; or 2) a lawyer; or 3) both, please be aware that this site is not affiliated with or approved by Canonical Limited. This site criticizes Canonical for certain privacy-invading features of Ubuntu and teaches users how to fix them. So, obviously, the site is not approved by Canonical. And our use of the trademarked term Ubuntu is plainly descriptive — it helps the public find this site and understand its message.
That the search can be disabled from within Ubuntu (Lee's site tells you how here) isn't noteworthy; The problem is that the most popular distributor of Linux has decided to spy on its users and compromise their security in the first place. This is the very antithesis of what free open source software is all about. But then again, that's what happens when a software company hires for the CEO position someone like Jane Silber, whose sole qualification for the job was writing spyware for military contractor General Dynamics C4 Division. ZSmith.Co has more.
<Excerpt from the General Dynamics website>
General Dynamics C4 Systems is a trusted leader in the development of intelligence and information gathering systems for national defense and homeland security. These systems are designed to receive, process, exploit and disseminate information -- in different forms and often from different networks -- and distribute relevant information to operators, both in the field and at higher headquarters.Canonical has long since issued what is tantamount to a public apology, but I won't be swayed by such an obviously calculated mea culpa and neither should you. Now that it has fired its first shot across the bow, there is nothing stopping Canonical from issuing via future system updates some other piece of spyware integrated with the OS originating from the devious mind of its former spyware writing military contractor CEO.
Incidentally, if you're not using Duck Duck Go for your internet searches, then you should be. Chrome extension found here.
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