Hi Jo-Erlend ,

Thanks for taking the time to write up your thoughts and caring enough about Ubuntu to share them with the list!

I have some general thoughts on this and then more specific music lens thoughts.

Privacy is an important component of Ubuntu computing and we take that seriously. As Ubuntu opens more networked services, privacy continues to be a core value.

Specifically with the Music Lens, the data sent and the results returned are innocuous in nature (there is no user specific information sent etc), though I acknowledge that some people will simply not want this additional functionality if they consider this a breach of their personal privacy. As we strive to bring value to our users, we are also committed to ensuring privacy continues to be a core value.

While we suspect most users will have no concern about the data sent and returned, for those who do the current way to remove this is to simply uninstall the music scope[1]. I recognize that this is neither optional nor user friendly so I'll be looking at adding opt-out options for services like this in the future generally and specifically for this one in a possible SRU.

Bottom line, everyone needs to be concerned with privacy now and in the future and it must be balanced with adding great services for the vast majority of people. Again, thanks for bringing this up. It raised an area that we can improve and are going to do just that!

Thanks,
Jason