How is hardware information being collected online?
I’ve found this very interesting info [HowTo] Provide System Information
Especially this got my attention: 'Your privacy is respected Personally Identifiable Information like serial numbers and MAC addresses will be filtered out by the above command.‘Personally Identifiable Information like serial numbers and MAC addresses will be filtered out by the above command.’
I wonder how would it be possible to access those ‘Personally Identifiable Information’ when one isn’t using the filter?
Moderator edit: removed the < and > from around the word “filter” so as to make it clear what the OP means, given that Discourse filters out words between those characters.
It’s not online or collected. The instructions tell you to run inxi to gather system information. They include the flag -z (or rather --filter but they’re the same) which removes these potentially private information.
You can see the difference when running: inxi -e or inxi -ez. For the latter, especially the information about networks should contain <filter> in the output where the first command shows the actual MAC address.
Q: How is hardware information being collected online? A: It is not.
There is no collection system or data hording of any kind.
The system talks to community repo servers.
The Network Manager configuration uses http://ping.manjaro.org to establish if the system has an internet connection - this is a feature of Network Manager and has nothing to do with Manjaro.
I just noticed the word ‘filter’ in the last sentence was lost since I put it between<>
Maybe that is why the reactions don’t compete with the question?
To clearify I am talking about any hackers or big tech.
Someone could harvest the identifiable information from your posts when you post the inxi output here on the forum without using the filter.
This forum is visited by many more connections than we have members, as well as the usual search engine crawlers and A.I.-training bots. Ergo, leaving personally identifiable information visible in public posts is not a wise thing to do.
If your IP address is static or even semi-static, then someone could use that to pinpoint your location, plus that if you have accounts over at other venues, then there will be people there — even if only the moderators — who can check your IP address.
In addition to that, MAC addresses are normally unique, and if you do not include the filter in inxi, then depending on what inxi output you’re posting, it could reveal your MAC address.
That’s only about the MAC address. There are more things filtered out. Like serial numbers battery, integrated camera driver, network devices, bluetooth, diskdrives.
What about them? (How) can they be read by a 3rd party?
That said however, it has come to our attention that many of our members are paranoid about revealing any identifiable information, or leaving it behind when asking for their account to be deleted or anonymized. Therefore we tend to warn people in advance of potentially leaving traces on the forum that could possibly lead to identification.
As @Aragorn pointed out, any information you post here is publicly available.
Data mining is about collecting data from multiple sources and seeing what you can piece together.
If someone had a list of MAC addresses or serial numbers and information about who bought that hardware they can see your post here and link your identity to your account on this site.
They can then look for similarities, such as username, writing patterns, IP address, etc, and potentially link you to activity on other sites (perhaps with some level of ambiguity).
Use of -z or --filter when providing requested system information will filter personally identifiable information from the inxi command output.
It’s a case of “what-you-see-is-what-you-get”.
If one uses the filter, any personally identifiable information is not generated as part of the inxi command output.
If the filter is not used, personally identifiable information is included with the inxi command output.
Support and general categories are public. This means that anything posted by you may be read/seen by anyone browsing the forum.
An exception is the Member Hub (which is not public) and is available when reaching Trust Level 2 (TL2).
The onus is on the forum user (you) to use the recommended filter whenever inxi output is requested.
When the filter is not used, anyone can simply read the inxi output that you provide – it makes little sense to not use the filter.
It cannot be, at least, not in that circumstance. However, as @Aragorn has already mentioned, website administrators of other sites you frequent might have access to a MAC address (for example).
This could potentially be matched against unfiltered publicly provided inxi output in any forum.
However, I note that those in the position of Site Administrator are generally considered responsible and beyond reproach.
What about them? If they are filtered, they cannot be read by anyone.
That’s not the question you initially asked.
However, no – not if you use the filter – because, this means that any personally identifiable information has not been provided.
