Ubuntu, a widely used and influential GNU/Linux distribution, has installed surveillance code. When the user searches her own local files for a string using the Ubuntu desktop, Ubuntu sends that string to one of Canonical's servers. (Canonical is the company that develops Ubuntu.)
Ubuntu uses the information about searches to show the user ads to buy various things from Amazon. Amazon commits many wrongs (see http://stallman.org/amazon.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;); by promoting Amazon, Canonical contributes to them. However, the ads are not the core of the problem. The main issue is the spying. Canonical says it does not tell Amazon who searched for what. However, it is just as bad for Canonical to collect your personal information as it would have been for Amazon to collect it.
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Richard Stallman van de Free Software Foundation heeft kritiek geuit op Canonicals besturingssysteem Ubuntu. Hij noemt het besturingssysteem spyware.
In Ubuntu 12.10 is het zo dat als via het Dash wordt gezocht naar bestanden of applicaties er ook resultaten van de Amazon-webwinkel worden gegeven. Mocht een gebruiker via zo'n zoekresultaat iets in de Amazon-winkel kopen, dan ontvangt Canonical daar geld voor.
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