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For instance: the Amazon icon. That's a red flag for me because some huge corporation is always up to no good. Also, there is a facebook plugin. Get my tinfoil hat and hold onto my jimmies.

Are there any apps, programs, packages or other things which act in a way a privacy conscious person would get upset about? If so, how do I dispose of such programs, and what are the risks of keeping/removing them?

Thia
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    That's easy - Yes: Your web browser. In a default install, that's about all. There's a long history behind the Amazon app (ask a search engine), it's less intrusive than you likely expect, and it's easily uninstalled anyway. – user535733 Mar 12 '17 at 15:16
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    Possible duplicate of How can I remove Amazon search results from the dash or disable the feature? – muru Mar 12 '17 at 15:21
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    @muru Although the question you linked is highly relevant, I don't consider this to be a duplicate, because the other question might not cover everything asked about here. – Byte Commander Mar 12 '17 at 15:28
  • @ByteCommander if there were anything else to cover. For example, this Facebook plugin. Needs a login. Otherwise the question is just opinion based: "Are there any apps, programs, packages or other things which act in a way a privacy conscious person would get upset about?" – muru Mar 12 '17 at 15:30
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    @muru I'd still think it is better to answer that the thing above is the only potential threat and saying how to remove it (or including that link, for the lazy ones) - almost like your comment did, just a bit more detailed - than just closing two questions as duplicates because the answers are about the same. – Byte Commander Mar 12 '17 at 15:35
  • @ByteCommander be my guest. – muru Mar 12 '17 at 15:36

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One answer can be found here: Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do?. The article is written by our famous friend Richard Stallman. To summarize:

Since Ubuntu version 16.04, the spyware search facility is now disabled by default. It appears that the campaign of pressure launched by this article has been partly successful. Nonetheless, offering the spyware search facility as an option is still a problem, as explained below. Ubuntu should make the network search a command users can execute from time to time, not a semipermanent option for users to enable (and probably forget).

Even though the factual situation described in the rest of this page has partly changed, the page is still important. This example should teach our community not to do such things again, but in order for that to happen, we must continue to talk about it.

WinEunuuchs2Unix
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  • Well, that is very concerning. I switched to Linux because of windows spying, and now you tell me that ubuntu is in cahoots with the corporations? --- What should I do? – Thia Mar 12 '17 at 16:27
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    @Thia the good news is that spying was in Ubuntu 14.04 and after pressure from Richard Stallman and others who can see the "open source code" that default spying was removed in Ubuntu 16.04 and now you have to volunteer to be spied upon. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Mar 12 '17 at 16:30
  • Mods may delete this comment later under house rules. Richard Stallman protects more than Linux he also protects journalists: https://stallman.org/articles/friends.html – WinEunuuchs2Unix Apr 18 '19 at 01:08