Is Acer spying on Linpus Linux users? (apparently not)

Hi,

did anyone who uses the preinstalled Linpus Linux take a look in the crontab?
I just typed crontab -e to add something, then I saw two already existing entries for /usr/acer/bin/PollingService, each one with a different 33 digits long hex-number as $1, set to run once per hour.

Does anyone know what the executed binary /usr/acer/bin/PollingServicebin does?

 

Re: Is Acer spying on Linpus Linux users?

I don't see anything out of the ordinary in any of the /etc/cron* stuff and /var/spool/cron/user only has a calender reminder.

 

Re: Is Acer spying on Linpus Linux users?

Same here. Apparently they are only spying on you

Perry
www.kidpub.com

 

Re: Is Acer spying on Linpus Linux users?

Yep. I've got it as well.

Code:

*/60 * * * * /usr/acer/bin/PollingService 14be1a6dce394a42a21657876b8e03ff

 

Re: Is Acer spying on Linpus Linux users?

I didn't check mine, but I don't think it's 'spying', perhaps they just want to see how many people are using Linux and how many are using Windows, which is not a big deal.

 

Re: Is Acer spying on Linpus Linux users?

Maybe it's not a big deal if you are used to privacy infringement because you use Windows and don't know any better because that's just how things are. I for my part abandoned Windows as soon as "Windows Genuine Advantage" came as a security update. That was too much. Never installed it, never booted Windows again.

But nevertheless, my question was if someone has a specific clue about what it does. Maybe someone else stumbled upon this before and didn't just think "hm... well... I don't care...".

 

Re: Is Acer spying on Linpus Linux users?

I don't know, and I'm not within reach of my One at the moment to check,. but could this be what checks for updates?

 

Re: Is Acer spying on Linpus Linux users?

I've never got a notification about new updates being available. Did you?

 

Re: Is Acer spying on Linpus Linux users?

Possibly it is. Have you installed anything recently with automatic updates option?? Check your applications - it may be f.e. Skype checking balance of your account or updates...

 

Re: Is Acer spying on Linpus Linux users?

Usually the package manager does the updates, not the applications themselves.

 

Re: Is Acer spying on Linpus Linux users?

True. But maybe some application is checking own version and is informing you about update...

I'm also thinking about Update Manager itself - is it possible this cron contains info about time schedule for Update Manager to check for updates??

 

Re: Is Acer spying on Linpus Linux users?

I can't recall, to be honest: I had a vague feeling I had seen one when the machine was new, but nothing definite. If it's running hourly, though, one would expect update notifications whenever they happened (i.e. I wouldn't get to them manually before being notified).

The line isn't there on my machine, anyway: just got back and been able to check.

 

Re: Is Acer spying on Linpus Linux users?

I got two notifications within the first day of having my AA1 for updates, haven't had any since then.

 

Re: Is Acer spying on Linpus Linux users?

Just because you don't have the entry in your user crontab (the one you access with crontab -e) does not mean it's not executed at all on your machine. There are system wide cron jobs as well. Though I find it weird that there are differences.

I don't think it has anything to do with updates.
Take a look at the executed shell script:

Code:

$ cat /usr/acer/bin/PollingService 

#! /bin/sh -e
DISPLAY=:0
firefox_version=`rpm -q --queryformat '%{VERSION}' firefox`
/usr/lib/firefox-$firefox_version/run-mozilla.sh /usr/acer/bin/PollingServicebin "$1" "$2"

If I get run-mozilla.sh right, PollingServicebin is at the place where a debugger is expected by firefox.

 

Re: Is Acer spying on Linpus Linux users?

So then I guess you never used a website, or instant messanger, skype, etc? Because guess what, all those things 'spy' on you, knowing when you connect, from what IP, and so on.
If you are so concerned about this issue, use tcpdump or something to see what happens at the time that program is run (I guess you can run it manually without waiting for cron).

 

Re: Is Acer spying on Linpus Linux users?

You can't seriously compare a website to an IM, nor the data you leave while surfing the web with the data that is collected via WGA.

That's indeed the next thing I had in mind. But I'm not gonna put too much time in this and use it rather to install a proper OS, since Linpus pisses me off in many points so far.

 

Re: Is Acer spying on Linpus Linux users?

Polling Service is for email checking service. If you have used the one mail to access your email account, it will register the service on. The polling service will periodically check your mail and notify you, even you have not launched the one mail. That is a good design not a spyware, my personal opinion. That can make good experience of push-like mail service.

 

Re: Is Acer spying on Linpus Linux users?

You're right! Thank you! How could I forget the mail client!
Changing the time interval for checking the mails also changes the entry.
That explains as well, why not everybody has it in the crontab.
But I find it a little weird, to use run-mozilla.sh for that though.

 

maybe acer one mail is partly thunderbird (and it's from mozilla)? just guessing

 

about the "run-mozilla.sh"
The One Mail is not based on any open source mail client, it was purely designed and implemented by acer's RDs. the mail client uses the gtk mozilla widget in the email reader, so you can see full HTML mail content and can perform zoom in/out of the major html components. Since acer has RD to develop the mail client, we may look forward to seeing the new features on next version.