For instance: the Amazon icon. That's a red flag for me because some huge corporation is always up to no good. Also, there is a facebook plugin. Get my tinfoil hat and hold onto my jimmies.
Are there any apps, programs, packages or other things which act in a way a privacy conscious person would get upset about? If so, how do I dispose of such programs, and what are the risks of keeping/removing them?
One answer can be found here: Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do?. The article is written by our famous friend Richard Stallman. To summarize:
Since Ubuntu version 16.04, the spyware search facility is now disabled by default. It appears that the campaign of pressure launched by this article has been partly successful. Nonetheless, offering the spyware search facility as an option is still a problem, as explained below. Ubuntu should make the network search a command users can execute from time to time, not a semipermanent option for users to enable (and probably forget).
Even though the factual situation described in the rest of this page has partly changed, the page is still important. This example should teach our community not to do such things again, but in order for that to happen, we must continue to talk about it.
