Karin Chan

Showing posts with label privacy. Show all posts

How To Disable Amazon / Shopping Suggestions And Other Unity Scopes In Ubuntu 13.10

<div style="text-align: justify;">In Ubuntu 13.04, if you want to get online search results in Dash without shopping suggestions, you can simply remove the Unity Shopping lens. In Ubuntu 13.10 (Saucy Salamander) you can't remove the Shopping lens but there is another way to achieve the same thing and it seems this isn't obvious because I've seen quite a few users complaining about it. So here's how to disable the shopping scopes or any scope for that matter, in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander, without disabling all the online search results.</div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/ubuntu13.10-shopping-suggestions.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Unity Dash sopping suggestions" border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh_ZN1dFan1SxeHi1TrujFUIm7jyXcguTvjJ6PfsOTiKiWdOx_Dz8UfEfI3e3nDXfyzS-lPqpUv4GFWV2p7XgPOCW8oLfCGCayoy9fYvnbbPSlzpqr1aopP9lxPsoeRWG47C1G0pEbGC0/s320/ubuntu13.10-shopping-suggestions.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Unity Dash with shopping suggestion</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">First of all, don't try to remove the Unity Shopping Lens in Ubuntu 13.10 because it won't work. Here's what you'll get if you try that:</div><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">$ sudo apt-get remove unity-lens-shopping<br />Reading package lists... Done<br />Building dependency tree       <br />Reading state information... Done<br />Note, selecting 'unity-scope-home' instead of 'unity-lens-shopping'<br />0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.</blockquote><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">If you remove <i>unity-scope-home</i>, which was selected instead of <i>unity-lens-shopping</i>, you won't get any results in Dash, not even for installed applications.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">You can't remove the Unity Shopping Lens in Ubuntu 13.10 because there's no Shopping lens. Ubuntu 13.10 comes with a feature called <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/06/unity-smart-scopes-feature-lands-in.html">Unity Smart Scopes</a> (or "100 scopes") which uses a huge list of scopes to display results in Dash and among these, there are some used for shopping. So if you don't want shopping suggestions in Dash, you must disable these shopping scopes (see below).</div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/ubuntu13.10-no-shopping.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Unity Dash no sopping suggestions" src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/ubuntu13.10-no-shopping_thumb.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Unity Dash without shopping suggestions</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><h2>How to disable Unity Dash plugins (scopes) in Ubuntu 13.10</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">To disable a Dash plugin (scope) in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander, open <i>Dash</i>, go to the <i>Applications</i> lens (either do it manually using your mouse or use the Super + A keyboard shortcut), click "Filter results" on the right and under "Type", select "Search plugins". All the Dash search plugins (scopes) should be listed, like in the screenshot below:</div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/ubuntu13.10-dash-plugins.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Unity Dash plugins" src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/ubuntu13.10-dash-plugins_thumb.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dash plugins (scopes)</td></tr></tbody></table><br />To disable a plugin, click on it and then click the "Disable" button:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/ubuntu13.10-dash-disable-amazon.png"><img alt="Unity Dash Amazon scope" src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/ubuntu13.10-dash-disable-amazon_thumb.png" /></a></div><br />Later on you can enable them back in the same way.<br /><br /><br /><h2>Disable the Amazon / shopping suggestions Unity Dash scopes</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">If you don't want shopping suggestions in Dash, disable the following scopes (by using the instructions above): Amazon, Ebay, Music Store, Popular Tracks Online, Skimlinks, Ubuntu One Music Search and Ubuntu Shop.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>To disable all these shopping Dash plugins/scopes from the command line</b>, use the following command:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>gsettings set com.canonical.Unity.Lenses disabled-scopes "['more_suggestions-amazon.scope', 'more_suggestions-u1ms.scope', 'more_suggestions-populartracks.scope', 'music-musicstore.scope', 'more_suggestions-ebay.scope', 'more_suggestions-ubuntushop.scope', 'more_suggestions-skimlinks.scope']"</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>inspired by <a href="http://marcosbox.blogspot.com/2013/10/ubuntu-1310-la-ricerca-su-amazon-non-si.html">MarcosBox</a></i></div>

How To Disable Amazon / Shopping Suggestions And Other Unity Scopes In Ubuntu 13.10

In Ubuntu 13.04, if you want to get online search results in Dash without shopping suggestions, you can simply remove the Unity Shopping len...

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Unity Privacy Indicator: Quickly Enable Or Disable Dash Online Search Results Or Zeitgeist Logging

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLzLSKS6xHvS07HVG48HQS8h_BNW3VnXM3RfPxK2gCMro00Q4gyYjpXMHYNvimy0FhQdDJ5cBORCMZspsZbSNdDlpRKabGfV7Am5uNTmWhr1imbeRwRUJd65IYG8IlDr8zMn8hBJkDEK2w/s1600/privacy-indicator.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="ubuntu privacy indicator" border="0" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLzLSKS6xHvS07HVG48HQS8h_BNW3VnXM3RfPxK2gCMro00Q4gyYjpXMHYNvimy0FhQdDJ5cBORCMZspsZbSNdDlpRKabGfV7Am5uNTmWhr1imbeRwRUJd65IYG8IlDr8zMn8hBJkDEK2w/s320/privacy-indicator.png" title="ubuntu privacy indicator" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Privacy Indicator is an Ubuntu AppIndicator especially created to control some privacy aspects of Unity.</b></div><br /><b>The AppIndicator can be used to enable or disable:</b><br /><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Dash online search results;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Zeitgeist logging (so when you disable this, all files you access won't be logged by Zeitgeist and thus, will not show up in Dash or any other applications that make use of Zeitgeist);</li><li style="text-align: justify;">show real name on the Unity panel.</li></ul><b>After a recent update, the indicator can also clear the Zeitgeist log and recent files (from the new Nautilus 3.6 sidebar, etc.). </b><br /><ul></ul><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">That's all the Privacy Indicator does for now but if you have an idea for some other privacy-related settings, submit a bug report on <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/indicator-privacy">Launchpad</a>. </div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">These settings are already available either via <i>GNOME Control Center > Privacy </i>(for enabling / disabling online search results or disabling Zeitgeist) or Dconf-editor, but using Privacy Indicator, you can quickly enable or disable these features which can be useful in various cases, for example if you often need to disable Zeitgeist, etc.</div><br /><br /><br /><h2>Install Privacy Indicator in Ubuntu</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Privacy Indicator can be installed in Ubuntu 12.10 or 13.04 using its official PPA - add it and install Privacy Indicator using the following commands:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:diesch/testing<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install indicator-privacy</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">If you don't want to add the PPA (but without adding the PPA, you won't get automatic updates), <b>you can also download the Privacy Indicator deb from <a href="http://www.florian-diesch.de/software/indicator-privacy/">HERE</a></b> (look at the bottom of the page).</div>

Unity Privacy Indicator: Quickly Enable Or Disable Dash Online Search Results Or Zeitgeist Logging

Privacy Indicator is an Ubuntu AppIndicator especially created to control some privacy aspects of Unity. The AppIndicator can be used to ena...

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Nautilus 3.6: How To Clear The Recent Files List (Or Disable It)

<div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a title="Install Nautilus 3.6 Ubuntu" href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/10/how-to-install-nautilus-36-or-patched.html">Nautilus 3.6</a> comes with a "Recent" sidebar item (left sidebar: <i>Places > Recent</i>) which displays recently used files: documents, pictures, music, videos and so on. </b></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.netupd8.com/nautilus-recent.png"><img alt="Nautilus Recent files" src="http://img.netupd8.com/nautilus-recent_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">This is a pretty big privacy issue because there's no option in System Settings (GNOME Control Center) to clear the Nautilus recent files list or to disable it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>So here's how to clear this Nautilus Recent files list and optionally, how to completely disable it.</b></div><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><h2>Clear the Nautilus Recent Files list</h2><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.netupd8.com/nautilus-recent-cleared.png"><img alt="Nautilus Recent files clear" src="http://img.netupd8.com/nautilus-recent-cleared_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>To clear the Nautilus "Recent" files</b>, you need to remove the "<i>~/.local/share/recently-used.xbel</i>" file - to do this from the command line, copy/paste the command below in a terminal:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>rm ~/.local/share/recently-used.xbel</code></pre><br />Then, log out an log back in. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Restarting Nautilus didn't always work in my test, that's why I've recommended logging out and logging back in. After removing the "<i>~/.local/share/recently-used.xbel</i>" file, you can also clear the Recent files list by opening a file that's not in your recent files list. I know, this weird, but that's how it seems to work or at least, that's the behaviour I've experienced in my test.</div><br /><br /><br /><h2>Disable the Nautilus Recent Files list</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>To permanently disable any recent files from showing up in the Nautilus Recent sidebar item</b>, open the "<i>~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini</i>" file with a text editor:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>gedit ~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini</code></pre><br />and under "[Settings]", add the following lines:<br /><pre class="source-code"><code>gtk-recent-files-max-age=0<br />gtk-recent-files-limit=0</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>If this file does not exist, create it</b>. Make sure the header says "[Settings]" and not "Settings". This is how the file should look after editing it:</div><pre class="source-code"><code>[Settings]<br />gtk-recent-files-max-age=0<br />gtk-recent-files-limit=0</code></pre><br />(there can be other items below these, of course).<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">To apply the changes, log out and log back in or follow the steps under "Clear the Nautilus Recent Files list" above.</div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>Thanks to Vishnu NJ for the post idea (based on a question posted in the new <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/103600247133352259845">WebUpd8 Google+ Community</a>)</i></div>

Nautilus 3.6: How To Clear The Recent Files List (Or Disable It)

Nautilus 3.6 comes with a "Recent" sidebar item (left sidebar: Places > Recent ) which displays recently used files: documents...

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Ubuntu 12.10 Gets Option To Disable Online Search Results In Dash [Unity 6.8.0]

<div style="text-align: justify;">Unity 6.8.0 has been <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/quantal/+source/unity/6.8.0-0ubuntu1">released</a> in the Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal repositories today, along with updated default lenses, bringing many bug fixes as usual, along with an <b>option to disable online results from showing up in Dash</b>.<br /><br />Starting with the latest Unity 6.8.0, you can disable Dash online search results by going to <i>System Settings > Privacy > Search results</i>, and setting "When searching in Dash - Include online search results" to OFF:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhliIPoTvl-TSq6KOe5b54qWrrETCeH8LGSCkhuAiGtto-QzNLB58uSAtNSOMB5p9RKRn8LBJXBgU01YZ5vypH2b-EmSdBCCQY-huo97s7ZhPzElo5iPl6mRmbc-qcgoIoPXS6k0vMB3Ylq/s1600/unity-dash-privacy.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhliIPoTvl-TSq6KOe5b54qWrrETCeH8LGSCkhuAiGtto-QzNLB58uSAtNSOMB5p9RKRn8LBJXBgU01YZ5vypH2b-EmSdBCCQY-huo97s7ZhPzElo5iPl6mRmbc-qcgoIoPXS6k0vMB3Ylq/s320/unity-dash-privacy.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">The option was added to Activity Log Manager (the privacy tool that lets you disable various files or other items from showing up in Dash)  a while back, but it required Unity 6.8.0 along with updated lenses to work. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Suggestions still show up in the Applications Lens after turning the above option to OFF, but these aren't really "online" results as they come from the Ubuntu Software Center.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Here's how the home lens looks like, after setting the "When searching in Dash - Include online search results" option to OFF:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghPtWkAYlJ5kyyqaOb5yu0PvR9r5l0ExfKsYsHd8yt9803HHEeLRypSLsCFcySV6HVxlvm4o9lYJLXPbmnlrlquMRty1kzuE5OEB_fQ9c5d0cYvDDNCnrgS3dxXfndET_cuR7ojDIc2iMi/s1600/unity-home-lens.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghPtWkAYlJ5kyyqaOb5yu0PvR9r5l0ExfKsYsHd8yt9803HHEeLRypSLsCFcySV6HVxlvm4o9lYJLXPbmnlrlquMRty1kzuE5OEB_fQ9c5d0cYvDDNCnrgS3dxXfndET_cuR7ojDIc2iMi/s320/unity-home-lens.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />And when the option is turn ON (this is the default behaviour):<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB_bcYxdUXyCCTF1qKJixcLL0hkcvIa2QtdWoKHhiPs68WMAhTa1m8E16iqmCqOaO1iTFb0-EOUIGR3SNXPwm-TU4S2YyrkGy0h1FU60Ris8iQeQ-sYeUarNHgcT6K5HNUozQ2zIey_twJ/s1600/unity-home-lens_2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB_bcYxdUXyCCTF1qKJixcLL0hkcvIa2QtdWoKHhiPs68WMAhTa1m8E16iqmCqOaO1iTFb0-EOUIGR3SNXPwm-TU4S2YyrkGy0h1FU60Ris8iQeQ-sYeUarNHgcT6K5HNUozQ2zIey_twJ/s320/unity-home-lens_2.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The solution to disable online search results in Dash used in Ubuntu 12.10 is far from ideal, since you can't simply disable one online lens or scope and continue to use the others, but it was implemented in a hurry because of user <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity-lens-shopping/+bug/1054746">complaints</a>, so it's understandable. <b>For the next Ubuntu  version, we might see a lot more options that lets you control what shows up in each lens, like the mockups you can see below:</b></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkdYAaki_0XzcMcL0Uzu3sLZaVTdRoYsoil2amoUnkJEw-fKV8E6E0xdmTUeimOV8tbz9GWpnzGbrFUvQg_RP6cKdl0pNst-ztjdFrzbfVVqy8pGJP1hx_gMIi8YDDy4F7LZf-yxB7LOz5/s1600/unity-settings-panel-files.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkdYAaki_0XzcMcL0Uzu3sLZaVTdRoYsoil2amoUnkJEw-fKV8E6E0xdmTUeimOV8tbz9GWpnzGbrFUvQg_RP6cKdl0pNst-ztjdFrzbfVVqy8pGJP1hx_gMIi8YDDy4F7LZf-yxB7LOz5/s320/unity-settings-panel-files.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mockup</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhotlKYkB1pDmW74J4dZvF0IqB7cuNk4ScjaXwg7-vO4WbS19SU8qVUx-dbAd_KL2UKzT9zy_GMVoNufK_bYgwp6ykk4bcbVZ6H-fnAOvFcP_4cCChNpaHawgRLa-kGvDvpaymU8S0yXpSK/s1600/unity-settings-panel-home.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhotlKYkB1pDmW74J4dZvF0IqB7cuNk4ScjaXwg7-vO4WbS19SU8qVUx-dbAd_KL2UKzT9zy_GMVoNufK_bYgwp6ykk4bcbVZ6H-fnAOvFcP_4cCChNpaHawgRLa-kGvDvpaymU8S0yXpSK/s320/unity-settings-panel-home.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mockup</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>Mockups via Sam Hewitt @ <a href="https://launchpad.net/~unity-design">unity-design</a> mailing list</i></div>

Ubuntu 12.10 Gets Option To Disable Online Search Results In Dash [Unity 6.8.0]

Unity 6.8.0 has been released in the Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal repositories today, along with updated default lenses, bringing many bug ...

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Stop IM Spam Bots In Pidgin With These Two Plugins

<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>If you're constantly getting automated instant messages from spam bots in Pidgin, there are two Pidgin plugins that you can use to block these spam messages or suppress repeated authorization requests which are usually sent from spammers.</b></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIl85shsAs39SVZXQ2JtEaoDY59VyS7kLmV_WiW4bM0uLFnMLGQaX3-vVyFnYbGc33dDp8dTUkZ652bGkWWazH8kcq2pkv4hlwEx9lSwbQ6Q4MHZI7aLSIqbkA1UUY2l7raVIYEJ3XSywZ/s1600/pidgin-spam.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="pidgin spam bot" border="0" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIl85shsAs39SVZXQ2JtEaoDY59VyS7kLmV_WiW4bM0uLFnMLGQaX3-vVyFnYbGc33dDp8dTUkZ652bGkWWazH8kcq2pkv4hlwEx9lSwbQ6Q4MHZI7aLSIqbkA1UUY2l7raVIYEJ3XSywZ/s320/pidgin-spam.png" title="pidgin spam bot" width="320" /></a></div><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><h2>Pidgin Privacy Please</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Pidgin Privacy Please is a plugin that lets you suppress repeated authorization requests, automatically block messages with an automated reply message, block messages or sender using regular expression, a bot check that lets you set up a question and if there's a real user and he replies to the automated question, he is unblocked, and more.</div><br /><br /><br /><b>Installation</b><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Ubuntu users can install Pidgin Privacy Please from the Ubuntu Software Center - click the button below to install it:</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="apt://pidgin-privacy-please"><button class="thoughtbot">Install Pidgin Privacy Please</button></a></div><br />Or, alternatively, to install it from the command line, use:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install pidgin-privacy-please</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">For other Linux distributions and Windows, download Pidgin Privacy Please from <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pidgin-privacy-please/downloads/list">HERE</a>.</div><br /><br /><b>Set up</b><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Firstly, you'll have to enable Pidgin Privacy Please - to do this, in Pidgin select <i>Tools > Plugins</i> and enable "Privacy Please". Then, you can configure it by clicking the "Configure Plugin" button.</div><br /><br /><br />On the first tab you can configure the auto-reply message:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUlsvvMos4cArutndbuHp8bZTI56lwA9XACVsXCH2VuDsCRi7ShseUVUlC1lDlGp_22w-6qTPZFysDnda3GBTIJXV0OR3iR0_PcGl7TI0cOi7s9WV1WJUidhqbG8Tdi1M-7r5lbsoG4naL/s1600/pidgin-privacy_1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="pidgin privacy please" border="0" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUlsvvMos4cArutndbuHp8bZTI56lwA9XACVsXCH2VuDsCRi7ShseUVUlC1lDlGp_22w-6qTPZFysDnda3GBTIJXV0OR3iR0_PcGl7TI0cOi7s9WV1WJUidhqbG8Tdi1M-7r5lbsoG4naL/s320/pidgin-privacy_1.png" title="pidgin privacy please" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">On the "Messages" tab, you can set up blocking rules for both the sender and messages using regular expression, or set Pidgin Privacy Please to block message from people not on your contact list:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNFioLfcUcBTGVYdTpiBN3-xUu1VqswmYIeKqdb88oPLEVszp3JkzxY4AMyzGPqsUHDYLN1jH76J7cZ_BEBrU-oBkkZC6VV-4Bf4s4X-h71gWDzBeLOZVBaVQ7yNnXVEF67csCbTITSYNL/s1600/pidgin-privacy_2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="pidgin privacy please" border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNFioLfcUcBTGVYdTpiBN3-xUu1VqswmYIeKqdb88oPLEVszp3JkzxY4AMyzGPqsUHDYLN1jH76J7cZ_BEBrU-oBkkZC6VV-4Bf4s4X-h71gWDzBeLOZVBaVQ7yNnXVEF67csCbTITSYNL/s320/pidgin-privacy_2.png" title="pidgin privacy please" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The "Authorization" tab can be used to enable suppressing repeated authorization requests, show user info on authorization request and so on:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoWUyZ0IxxLKFQNn5gYbXcIMvuqDtAwBbJU1oDLMjQrtH3JLQp5NSzzAu8P-otk8mo24_yu0RtmhY-hdaMcOgaURKSAJVl3qe2j2AtZy0iOVI8pnCRcL3M2xXBC5V201cWnDCbVuZ4i4vT/s1600/pidgin-privacy_3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="pidgin privacy please" border="0" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoWUyZ0IxxLKFQNn5gYbXcIMvuqDtAwBbJU1oDLMjQrtH3JLQp5NSzzAu8P-otk8mo24_yu0RtmhY-hdaMcOgaURKSAJVl3qe2j2AtZy0iOVI8pnCRcL3M2xXBC5V201cWnDCbVuZ4i4vT/s320/pidgin-privacy_3.png" title="pidgin privacy please" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br />You can set up a verification question on the "Bot check" tab:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2BFF_kRivK7YSPYtAkXaMiHAFMjt8L2pER8edBosAawHf6o0Hk9j1ooSTz6CqYQfg_vIoP3YSEqYjYwyNgM3eBVopKXo9ETz0wBEVqAGs2QuwDNlsJDSdjlWtOsF31xdk9u_SiM1C7L8W/s1600/pidgin-privacy_4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="pidgin privacy please" border="0" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2BFF_kRivK7YSPYtAkXaMiHAFMjt8L2pER8edBosAawHf6o0Hk9j1ooSTz6CqYQfg_vIoP3YSEqYjYwyNgM3eBVopKXo9ETz0wBEVqAGs2QuwDNlsJDSdjlWtOsF31xdk9u_SiM1C7L8W/s320/pidgin-privacy_4.png" title="pidgin privacy please" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Bruce Ingalls, who has sent us this tip, doesn't recommend using the bot check feature because it looks like it blocks users, and does not give them a chance.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><br />And finally, on the last tab there are some protocol-specific options, like blocking Jabber headline messages or blocking AOL system messages:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG7Mj0KbGdYzytp1LLdpSFIoemQytlC0uhKGhEiygRet7LXbpQ2_JJw__bDMD_IqWctqj5hPkl-oMeW-_MLV0i9IikQZlbEvQK-mTyIF_zfGg8aTJpL4H3UD02SQ44mtKYPmWkXwferLPW/s1600/pidgin-privacy_5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="pidgin privacy please" border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG7Mj0KbGdYzytp1LLdpSFIoemQytlC0uhKGhEiygRet7LXbpQ2_JJw__bDMD_IqWctqj5hPkl-oMeW-_MLV0i9IikQZlbEvQK-mTyIF_zfGg8aTJpL4H3UD02SQ44mtKYPmWkXwferLPW/s320/pidgin-privacy_5.png" title="pidgin privacy please" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><h2>Pidgin Bot Sentry</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Bot Sentry is a simple Pidgin plugin that lets you define a challenge question and set up the actions to perform if the challenge is met </b>(add the person to the allow list or add it to the buddy list). There's also an option that lets you configure the action to be performed when an authorization request is received.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This plugin is basically a simplified version of Pidgin Privacy Please, useful if you only want to use a challenge question and don't need all the other options available in the other plugin.<br /><br /><b>Do not use both this plugin and Pidgin Privacy please in the same time!</b></div><br /><br /><b>Installation</b><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Ubuntu users can install Pidgin Bot Sentry from the Ubuntu Software Center - click the button below to install it:</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="apt://pidgin-bot-sentry"><button class="thoughtbot">Install Pidgin Bot Sentry</button></a></div><br />Or, alternatively, to install it from the command line, use:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install pidgin-bot-sentry</code></pre><br />For other Linux distributions and Windows, download it via <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/pidgin-bs/files/bot-sentry/1.3.0/">SourceForge</a>.<br /><br /><br /><b>Set up </b><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Once installed, open the Pidgin Plugins dialog (<i>Tools > Plugins</i>) and enable the "Bot Sentry" plugin, then click "Configure Plugin". Here, you can set up the challnge question and answer as well as the action to be performed on authorization request:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg94SmzbV0uiOHTdzAy7EiAIELGXVYjM8UyR_WfyiPFfXtG4lXlQS-oQtywhUp0pzdecB7WrqMn1tBiUNl1NXvHKJALYpuI7aO4b2xPHvZIXBuJYwTalKNh4n0EpjBew7Q9TfIHPspZ7d-s/s1600/pidgin-bot-sentry.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg94SmzbV0uiOHTdzAy7EiAIELGXVYjM8UyR_WfyiPFfXtG4lXlQS-oQtywhUp0pzdecB7WrqMn1tBiUNl1NXvHKJALYpuI7aO4b2xPHvZIXBuJYwTalKNh4n0EpjBew7Q9TfIHPspZ7d-s/s320/pidgin-bot-sentry.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>Thanks to Bruce Ingalls for the tip! via <a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/quick-tip-stop-pidgin-spam-in-its-tracks-with-bot-sentry/">MakeUseOf</a> and <a href="http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/pidgin-privacy-please-helps-block-spammers-on-pidgin-im-spam/">AddictiveTips</a></i></div>

Stop IM Spam Bots In Pidgin With These Two Plugins

If you're constantly getting automated instant messages from spam bots in Pidgin, there are two Pidgin plugins that you can use to block...

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