Disable User Tracking and Geolocation of Cinnamon

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xervox
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Disable User Tracking and Geolocation of Cinnamon

Post by xervox »

Hi,

after checking my interface with "iftop" after boot up I found out that Cinnamon and the OS is doing a user tracking in the first 30s after login.

Working with netstat -natpu the following ips appeared:

tcp 1 0 <my_ipv_4>:58490 185.194.141.58:80 CLOSE_WAIT 8395/cinnamon
tcp6 0 1 <my_ipv_6>:38212 2606:6e00:c000:1000::80 SYN_SENT 8395/cinnamon
tcp6 0 0 <my_ipv_6>:41684 2a00:1450:4001:825::443 TIME_WAIT -

Another IP appearing at login through iftop (not shown in netstat) is 2a04:4e42:1b::729 (US-FASTLY-20130718)

When I open the Website at "http://185.194.141.58" the IP-API.com website shows.

I am running Linux Mint 19 Cinnamon.

How can I disable user tracking at login?
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smurphos
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Re: Disable User Tracking and Geolocation of Cinnamon

Post by smurphos »

I suspect this is a connection to check timezone and update network time, and not any user tracking. Not near my PC at the moment to check but I think that can be turned off in Date and Time settings.
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xervox
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Re: Disable User Tracking and Geolocation of Cinnamon

Post by xervox »

Hi smurphos,

i found out the geoip thing. It was an applet running under cinnamon.
For the rest of the unknown connections i am still looking for the cause.
I just want to make sure I am not tracked by the OS like the telemetry on Win10.

regards

xervox
DAMIEN1307

Re: Disable User Tracking and Geolocation of Cinnamon

Post by DAMIEN1307 »

just my 2 cents worth...1st 30 seconds?...i would say its the update manager connecting to find LM updates...they do not do any "telemetry" spying like M$ does...DAMIEN
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trytip
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Re: Disable User Tracking and Geolocation of Cinnamon

Post by trytip »

nope that's your weather. you can remove the applet if you don't want to connect to it
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jimallyn
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Re: Disable User Tracking and Geolocation of Cinnamon

Post by jimallyn »

One of the (many) beautiful things about Linux and other open source software is it just doesn't have any of that kind of stuff in it. The source code is available for anybody to review, and people do review it, too. Most open source projects have more than one developer, and if one of the developers tried to put in tracking, spyware, etc. the other developers would see it and call him out on it. Just not likely to happen in Linux.
“If the government were coming for your TVs and cars, then you'd be upset. But, as it is, they're only coming for your sons.” - Daniel Berrigan
gm10

Re: Disable User Tracking and Geolocation of Cinnamon

Post by gm10 »

jimallyn wrote: Mon Jul 16, 2018 1:53 pm One of the (many) beautiful things about Linux and other open source software is it just doesn't have any of that kind of stuff in it. The source code is available for anybody to review, and people do review it, too. Most open source projects have more than one developer, and if one of the developers tried to put in tracking, spyware, etc. the other developers would see it and call him out on it. Just not likely to happen in Linux.
Well... Ubuntu 18.04 in its default settings is tracking various telemetry like, for example, your hardware info, some system settings or what packages you install or remove. You can opt out of it and/or remove the responsible components but it's still there.
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jimallyn
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Re: Disable User Tracking and Geolocation of Cinnamon

Post by jimallyn »

gm10 wrote: Mon Jul 16, 2018 2:41 pmWell... Ubuntu 18.04 in its default settings is tracking various telemetry like, for example, your hardware info, some system settings or what packages you install or remove. You can opt out of it and/or remove the responsible components but it's still there.
Yeah, that's true, but everybody knows about that, and you can turn it off. If they put that in there and didn't tell anybody, it would be discovered in short order, because the source code is available. With closed software, like Windwoes, you don't know what's in there, and you don't have any way of finding out. And they won't tell you what's in there unless they are forced to.
“If the government were coming for your TVs and cars, then you'd be upset. But, as it is, they're only coming for your sons.” - Daniel Berrigan
idle

Re: Disable User Tracking and Geolocation of Cinnamon

Post by idle »

Its systemd tracking you ...













:lol:
gm10

Re: Disable User Tracking and Geolocation of Cinnamon

Post by gm10 »

jimallyn wrote: Mon Jul 16, 2018 9:57 pm
gm10 wrote: Mon Jul 16, 2018 2:41 pmWell... Ubuntu 18.04 in its default settings is tracking various telemetry like, for example, your hardware info, some system settings or what packages you install or remove. You can opt out of it and/or remove the responsible components but it's still there.
Yeah, that's true, but everybody knows about that, and you can turn it off. If they put that in there and didn't tell anybody, it would be discovered in short order, because the source code is available. With closed software, like Windwoes, you don't know what's in there, and you don't have any way of finding out. And they won't tell you what's in there unless they are forced to.
I remember Stallman calling Ubuntu spyware in the past despite that (and yes, the guy is an extremist, let's not get into that). Or how about Android. That's Google tracking you left, right and center, including with its closed source components like gapps, as do many (most?) apps in its app store.

My point is simply that just because it's Linux doesn't mean your data isn't as valuable as anywhere else, so remain vigilant despite it being Linux.
Last edited by gm10 on Tue Jul 17, 2018 3:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
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smurphos
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Re: Disable User Tracking and Geolocation of Cinnamon

Post by smurphos »

I've been checking cinnamon connections for a few days....

Code: Select all

tcp       32      0 192.168.1.4:54890       192.124.249.14:443      CLOSE_WAIT  11547/cinnamon      
tcp       32      0 192.168.1.4:54888       192.124.249.14:443      CLOSE_WAIT  11547/cinnamon
tcp        0      0 192.168.1.4:48314       76.13.28.196:80         ESTABLISHED 11547/cinnamon
The first two confused me for a while - the IP address is owned by Sucuri - who provide firewall services for all Linux Mint websites. Quite suspicious at first glance. And I only saw them once despite repeated checks. Then I remembered I had a Spices Notifier applet installed - https://cinnamon-spices.linuxmint.com/applets/view/307 with a 6 hour refresh interval and double checked the IP against https://cinnamon-spices.linuxmint.com - yep it was that.

Number 3 was easy - it always there, it's a Yahoo web address and it's from the weather applet--- https://cinnamon-spices.linuxmint.com/applets/view/17
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Re: Disable User Tracking and Geolocation of Cinnamon

Post by ZakGordon »

Weather applets are pretty bad at the geo-location thing. I never have them running as i prefer to go to a weather site (through my proxy) like the BBC and select a region to view when i want a quick forecast.

But as jimallyn said, the big advantage of Open Source is that lots and lots of people review it and IF there was anything truly questionable going on it would be screamed about all over so that we would all know it. It's why i can trust Linux as an OS unlike Windows and MacOS etc.

It is good to be vigilant though :)
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