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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 4 months ago by to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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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.

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[–] 0 points 3 months ago* (2 children)

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

  1. 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

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 3 months ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months 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.

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