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Your Linux PC is NOT private out of the box (lemmy.world)

submitted 5 days ago by FG_3479@lemmy.world to c/opensource@lemmy.ml

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A lot of software uses systemd-journald to log errors,
The bash shell saves everything you type into the terminal,
wtmp, btmp, utmp all track exactly who is logged in and when,
The package manager logs all software you install and keeps the logs after uninstallation,
And the kernel writes part of the RAM which may contain sensitive information to the disk when your PC crashes.

While the OS isn't sending these logs to Microsoft or Google, anyone who gets into your PC while you are logged in and your data is unencrypted can see much of what you have been doing.

If you want to be private, you must disable them.

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[-] CrypticCoffee@lemmy.ml 38 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I got reports on this. I'm personally not of a mind to remove it, but it does feel irrelevant to open source. It's more a Linux sysadmin type thing.

I will say, cut down the spam. Any repeated similar musings within a week would be low value and I'd probably remove.

I personally don't agree with your points and this wouldn't be relevant to most peoples risk profile.

Worth reflecting on what others have said here. I think you're worrying too much about something that will never be expolitable in standard usage and this is from someone who worries a lot about privacy.

Maybe if this is really important to you check out Tails OS which as far as I'm aware focusses on running in RAM and leaving minimal persistent state.

[-] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 9 points 5 days ago

They've been spamming this a few times now, fully respect your decision, but I know I commented on this exact post about 2 weeks ago the same as everyone else here, just FYI if you didn't know they've been repeating it. (Maybe it was an alt acct, not sure, but I know I said the same thing before)