… it’s a long street 
-
and not even the various online trackers who base their guess on the IP get it even close - they are usually off by ~ 100 km
1 Like
The point here is that it’s far easier to gather information about people, from their on line presence, and social Engineering, than some random UUID.
4 Likes
My IP address puts me somewhere in the vicinity of Brussels. That’s not even in the correct province. 
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I know - I was just having a little fun.
Sorry for polluting the thread!
Did you though. The whole point of my contribution here, was to take the piss out of those who think some random UUID that finger prints a computer will reveal personal information.
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Ok. Not sorry then. 
I don’t think the fish will get their butter. 
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Mine currently places me in Amsterdam, it will probably be somewhere else tomorrow, or even an hour from now.
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I don’t like what Manjaro trying to do here. 
TBH if MDD comes in Manjaro and silence sends my data around, i will no longer donating to this project.
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It’s very important that you always first react out of fear and according to your worst suspicions - and don’t make it too easy to be swayed by the facts.
2 Likes
Can anyone please point at where exactly there has been talk of silently — or for that matter, loudly — sending anyone’s personal data around to anyone else?
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What specifically is it that Manjaro is doing that you believe is bad?
Collecting hardware information, that is impossible to identify the actual person owning the computer, so they can improve their Operating System.
or is it some conspiracy theory you totally believe in, and cannot be swayed from believing, because the lie is more emotionally satisfying than the truth.
4 Likes
My IP address usually puts me somewhere in Melbourne (700+ kilometres away), sometimes Brisbane (also 700+ kilometres away), and very occasionally Adelaide (1,100+ kilometres away). Recently it showed me as being in Canberra (250 kilometres away). I think the only major city my IP address hasn’t shown me to be at (so far) is Perth in Western Australia (3,300 kilometres away).
On the infrequent occasions it places me in Sydney (where I actually live), it is often somewhere in the western suburbs, 10-30 kilometres away.
It may protect my privacy, but it is a pain when I am looking to purchase an item or service online.
2 Likes
Oops, you just Triangulated yourself. 
3 Likes
I’m a fairly recent user of Manjaro, and I came to love it since it fits my needs very well as a package and its where I’ve finally gotten satisfied moving away from Windows for good. I have come to understand both sides of the argument here, and being the advocate for user control and privacy that I am, I would be happier if Manjaro stood against the trend and instead provided a prompt to the user asking them to opt-in, and by doing so, I would be happy to participate out of appreciation and support for this community. If it ends up not being that way, I would ask that users simply be notified in a manner that will be surely noticed by the user prior to sending any data. I believe that’s a good compromise all things considered. Thank you all for the work you do here.
5 Likes
Something along the lines of.
You computer has the following hardware, and Software.
List of the data gathered.
Please send this to Manjaro, so we can improve our Product.
Followed by a Send and Cancel button, would that be acceptable?
6 Likes
Yea, this is along the lines of the most favorable approach in my opinion. Beyond that, I believe personally leaving the data collection manual and occasionally asking users to send data during things like updates for example, is what will make users most likely to participate even to those that initially may disregard it. Although this is where my opinion gets mixed as I don’t mind the option being automatic, but that is just what I think for now.
3 Likes
Have you tried installing and running mdd, first in the --dry-run mode, just to see what data is collected.
Here’s mine…
[tracy@daphne ~]$ mdd --dry-run
Welcome to MDD - The Manjaro Data Donor
Preparing data submission...
------------------------------------------
Would send the following data (dry run)
------------------------------------------
{
"meta": {
"version": 1,
"timestamp": "2024-11-10T23:02:00.717568+00:00",
"device_id": "3c63cd61-4f6e-50aa-878c-7c501fb1a886",
"distro_id": "manjaro",
"release": "24.1.2",
"inxi": true
},
"system": {
"kernel": "6.11.2-4-MANJARO",
"form_factor": "laptop",
"install_date": "2024-09-10T10:07:58+00:00",
"product_name": "W54_W94_W955TU,-T,-C",
"product_family": "To be filled by O.E.M.",
"sys_vendor": "Notebook",
"board_name": "W54_W94_W955TU,-T,-C"
},
"boot": {
"uefi": true,
"uptime_seconds": 51390
},
"cpu": {
"arch": "x86_64",
"model": "Intel Pentium N3540",
"cores": 4,
"threads": 4
},
"memory": {
"ram_gb": 7.638099670410156,
"swap_gb": 20.019527435302734
},
"graphics": {
"comp": "kwin_wayland",
"dri": "crocus",
"gpus": [
{
"vendor": "CLEVO/KAPOK",
"model": "Intel Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx Series Graphics & Display",
"driver": "i915"
}
],
"outputs": [
{
"model": null,
"res": "1607x904",
"refresh": null,
"dpi": null,
"size": "N/A",
"mapped": "eDP-1"
}
]
},
"audio": {
"servers": [
{
"name": "PipeWire",
"active": true
}
]
},
"disk": {
"disks": [
{
"size_gb": 931.5133895874023,
"root": {
"size_gb": 63.4765625,
"fstype": "ext4",
"crypt": false
},
"home": {
"size_gb": 847.7223582267761,
"fstype": "ext4",
"crypt": false
}
}
],
"windows": false
},
"locale": {
"region": "en_AU.UTF-8",
"language": "en",
"timezone": "Australia/Brisbane"
},
"package": {
"last_update": "2024-11-05T12:04:19+10:00",
"branch": "stable",
"pkgs": 1512,
"foreign_pkgs": 10,
"pkgs_update_pending": 0,
"flatpaks": 9,
"pacman_mirrors": {
"total": 8,
"ok": 8,
"country_config": ""
}
},
"desktop": {
"cli": "/bin/bash",
"gui": "KDE Plasma",
"dm": "SDDM",
"wm": "kwin_wayland",
"display": "wayland",
"display_with": "Xwayland"
}
}
------------------------------------------
Note: Skipping data submission because of dry run.
I’m waiting to see what decision will be made, and how it will be implemented if it is added, but it is for sure a turning point for Manjaro. All eyes on you.
You never heared about browser fingerprinting?
This can also helps to identify your device to track you.
Even alone the question about Opt-out… this should be Opt-in without any question at all.
I don’t get it why people are even trying to defend this… how harmless this data maybe even are or not.
2 Likes
I think you mean “opt-in”. And I’m pretty certain that the developers will do everything possible to make it opt-in.
1 Like