Ubuntu 22.04, I just noticed in the settings "Connectivity Checking" should I turn it off? I'm concerned about my privacy

Question

I don't want Canonical stealing information from my computer so should I disable it or leave it alone?

Answer 1

Canonical have better things to do than steal your information but it is entirely your choice.

Connectivity checking is a useful NetworkManager functionality that allows periodically testing whether the system can actually access the internet or not. The network-manager snap allows configuring this feature by using the following snap settings:

connectivity.interval : it specifies the number of seconds between checks. If set to 0, it disables connectivity check. Set to 300 by default.
connectivity.response : This is the expected HTTP body response from the server specified by connectivity.uri.
connectivity.uri : The URI where NM is going to periodically access to check connectivity.

You can change aspects of the commands which control the way it works - an example is listed in the resource listed above.

Further information about it can be found here

Further down the list of Privacy options is an option regarding the sending of sending technical problem issues to Canonical which allows you to select Never, Automatic or Manual.