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Comment by SV_BubbleTime

4 hours ago

Obvious workaround to get off windows and use Linux…

But do any popular linux distributions use an identifier? Ubuntu, Kali, Mint, Arch, etc?

It seems an attractive way for devs to work out telemetry. Awful in reality; but I imagine attractive.

9 comments

SV_BubbleTime

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moepstar  4 hours ago

At least Debian and Ubuntu have /etc/machine-id, presumably easily changed - but it’s there.

  • NotPractical  3 hours ago

    I think the difference is that, on Windows, there are background services that constantly ping Microsoft with the device ID. A device ID on its own is not really harmful if it's not exposed to the internet.

    • Terr_  3 hours ago

      Right, the danger here isn't stable unique data itself--there's already plenty of that--but the OS "telemetry" which steals [0] it and reports to Big-Brother along with too much other betraying information. Every site you visit, every program you run, the serial numbers of all your hardware, etc. Even if the GDID were totally absent, it would still be a correlate-able privacy nightmare.

      Ultimately there's no informed consent here: The average consumer is disbelieving and surprised if you tell them what kinds of stuff Microsoft has/can put into a dossier. Nobody thinks: "Ah, Edge on a fresh Windows install, I'm glad Microsoft knows every site I visit, and can tell I'm a friend with someone because we use the same bluetooth speaker."

      [0] It seems wrong to use the verb "leaks" when it's so obviously intentional.

  • capitainenemo  3 hours ago

    I mean, there's a ton of unique identifiers on machines already tied to hardware and disks, but that must be a systemd thing since my Devuan machine does not have it.

    But given there's no cloud accounts on linux I would imagine it's trivially changed just like a NIC's MAC

    Also, seems unlikely it would be used for any single-signon with cloud services.