Privacy a Concern? Fix Ubuntu!

This was brought to my attention in 2012 when Ubuntu 12.10 was released. Many people were complaining about the unity lenses and their far reaching affects(the inclusion of online shopping results in searches and online search “feature”). Since then we have had the PRISM debacle as well as many other highly publicized stories regarding our privacy and freedom. Recently a friend turned me on to a website that simply provided a script that would disable the “Big Brother” portions of Ubuntu. Pretty nifty idea if I say so myself.  The website by Micah Lee is called “Fix Ubuntu” and is available here. If you are to lazy to click the link provided, below is a copy of the bash script. Enjoy!

#!/bin/bash

GS="/usr/bin/gsettings"
CCUL="com.canonical.Unity.lenses"

# Figure out the version of Ubuntu that you're running
V=`/usr/bin/lsb_release -rs`
# The privacy problems started with 12.10, so earlier versions should do nothing
if awk "BEGIN {exit !($V < 12.10 || $V >= 14.10)}"; then
  echo "Good news! This version of Ubuntu is not known to invade your privacy."
else

  # Check Canonical schema is present. Take first match, ignoring case.
  SCHEMA="`$GS list-schemas | grep -i $CCUL | head -1`"
  if [ -z "$SCHEMA" ]
    then
    printf "Error: could not find Canonical schema %s.\n" "$CCUL" 1>&2
    exit 1
  else
    CCUL="$SCHEMA"
  fi

  # Turn off "Remote Search", so search terms in Dash don't get sent to the internet
  $GS set $CCUL remote-content-search none

  # If you're using earlier than 13.10, uninstall unity-lens-shopping
  if [ $V \< 13.10 &#93;; then
    sudo apt-get remove -y unity-lens-shopping

  # If you're using a later version, disable remote scopes
  else
    $GS set $CCUL disabled-scopes \
      "&#91;'more_suggestions-amazon.scope', 'more_suggestions-u1ms.scope',
      'more_suggestions-populartracks.scope', 'music-musicstore.scope',
      'more_suggestions-ebay.scope', 'more_suggestions-ubuntushop.scope',
      'more_suggestions-skimlinks.scope'&#93;"
  fi;

  # Block connections to Ubuntu's ad server, just in case
  if ! grep -q "127.0.0.1 productsearch.ubuntu.com" /etc/hosts; then
    echo -e "\n127.0.0.1 productsearch.ubuntu.com" | sudo tee -a /etc/hosts >/dev/null
  fi

  echo "All done. Enjoy your privacy."
fi