Privacy

50695 readers

837 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
Don't promote proprietary software
Try to keep things on topic
If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
Be nice :)

Related communities

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 6 years ago

MODERATORS

Linux has /etc/machine-id and you forgot to setup your init daemon to periodically truncate and regenerate a new machine-id so you can be tracked via user telemetry analytics. (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 month ago by yogthos@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

77 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Ultimately, the problem is much bigger than /etc/machine-id since there are dozens of hardware IDs on any PC that can be used by malicious telemetry to silently to uniquely identify and track you, and the only solution to this problem currently is to make sure you really trust any software you use.

Systemd, in particular, acts a lot like malware for Linux because if you try to reset your machine-id a long list of stuff that breaks in in it. You could make a cron script to reset /etc/machine-id every day, but machine-id is so deep in the stack that you'd also have to reboot to ensure it's updated.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You have yet to explain what the net positive that machine-id brings to the table is. I'm eagerly waiting for you thesis.

[–] hirihit640@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

First off, your post wasn't about machine-id, it was about systemd using machine-id, yes? If you think machine-id is a mistake, blame Linux, not systemd. This is a shift from your original claim.

Second, I've already explained my argument many times. Machine-id was likely a simple solution to a few problems Linux faced, and Linux was able to keep pace with competition and gain popularity. Same with systemd adopting machine-id. If they focused on fingerprint resistance, then other core features of modern Linux distros would have lagged behind, and I might not be using Linux today.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Maybe go back and read through the thread because I very clearly and repeatedly explained myself. I'm not going to do it once again for you here. You've basically made this huge assumption that machine-id was somehow critical to adopt for which I'm not aware of any supporting evidence, nor have you bothered providing any rationale for. You just keep stating it as fact. Meanwhile, as I've explained, systemd makes the whole situation worse precisely by creating a monolithic structure which everything depends on, and which makes solving the problem more difficult now. I don't think there's any point continuing the discussion though because we just keep restating the same points here and I don't think any further understanding will be gained by anyone from continuing to do that.

[–] hirihit640@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

My evidence was small but should have been easy to understand:

systemd uses machine-id 2 systemd adoption is high amongst distros

You can argue correlation vs cause but I'd argue this is not zero evidence.

You are on the other hand assuming that it would have been easy to avoid machine-id. Do you have evidence for this claim?

Why should I have to provide evidence while you provide none

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That's not evidence of anything, it's just a tautology stating that machine-id is indeed used, which has never been under any dispute throughout this discussion. What I provided was rationale for why machine-id is problematic, and why systemd makes the problem worse. You have not provided any rationale for why it's necessary aside from stating a tautological fact here. Again, nothing new has been added to the discussion in the process, but you insist on continuing it for reasons unknown. I'll just let you have the last word here since that's what you seem to be after.

Have a good day.

[–] hirihit640@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago

it's just a tautology stating that machine-id is indeed used

I stated two things, that machine-id is used and that adoption is high. You're ignoring the latter. Might be correlation or causation, but definitely not tautology.

You have not provided any rationale for why it's necessary aside from stating a tautological fact here

This is a gross misrepresentation of my words. I'm not saying it's necessary, I'm saying it contributed to the success of some of the most private distros that exist today. In other words a net positive. You provided zero evidence that it was a net negative, and demonstrated ignorance about the complexity of engineering.

Either you keep misunderstanding my argument, or deliberately misrepresenting it to avoid admitting its merits. It's becoming clear which is true.