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There are all sort of features, enabled by default, that violate the users privacy:
recent files histories,
browser histories and cache not being cleaned at shutdown,
password saving features,
tracker and indexing services that even index file contents,
etc, etc,...
The problem with these is that they are scattered all over the system, so you can never tell when you have found them all. Some are even impossible to turn of with my skills.
It would make much more sense if the attitude would be to have features that violate privacy disabled by default, and enabled by request. This would be a much better attitude towards the user, giving them clarity into their privacy. It would make me feel much better if i had the feeling that developers would only have features like that turned on when im very concious of the decisions i make. Right now, i find it impossible to try and create a safe environment to work in, because it's all scattered. In my opinion, most of those features are quite unuseful anyways. Who was really waiting in great expectation for recent documents to come to linux???
There are also privacy enchancing features which could maybe be on by default if they have no drawbacks, like encrypted swap etc.
In any case, there should be very clear documentation on what the privacy status is of an operating system, with for example an extensive list of all the features that possibly violate privacy.
Clarity is asked for. How many people know what it means to have a journalling file system in therms of privacy. Does that mean that shred will not erase all sensitive data? , etc, etc...
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