There would still be ways to disable it - rename the script in /etc/cron.daily, use the 'crontab -e' command to comment it out, set the daemon itself to non-executable... unless they hardcode it into the kernel there will likely always be a simple way to render it nonfunctional.

That said, I really doubt that Canonical will do such at thing, at least, unless they get bought out.

Just use Synaptic to uninstall the canonical-census package and be done with it.

This license might work just as well for that: Creative Commons by attribution/non-commercial/share-alike (v3.0)

Those who scoff tend to lack the imagination to do anything along those lines, or lack the confidence to build their skills up to the point where they are capable of doing something interesting, new, and innovative. It's far easier to bust someone's chops for "dreaming" or "being unrealistic" to cover the fact that the naysayer has balls the size of peas (if applicable) than it is to get off of one's ass and do something.

I'm concerned about what would be done with the information. I'd feel a hell of a lot better if I had any assurance that the company doing the work wasn't going to sell it or give it to someone else for archival. I'm also concerned about my health insurance company getting a copy of the data, analyzing it, and thereafter deciding that my coverage should be dropped entirely rather than staying at sucktacular because there is one gene they decided that will cost them too much in the long run.

The words "enemy combatant" suddenly spring to mind...

Your claims sound fishy without corroborating evidence because they seem to ignore necessities like paying other bills, rent, and how much one typically makes immediately following graduation? How much did you wind up borrowing to be able to pay it off in just six months? Were you living on your own or with your parents to be able to throw just about every one of your paychecks at those loan payments? How much were you making immediately after graduation?

Whether or not the takeover is hidden is not the point. Whether or not they'll give it back is the point.

My code's compiling.

Better that than hover-cover.

Or extrapolating the shapes of buildings behind a character to figure out where a video was shot in one of the Tekwar movies.

That's great. How do you propose we go about it? Just sitting around in a Facebook group bitching won't accomplish anything.

Who do we write to? Who do we call? What are they in charge of? What power (realistically) do they have over the situation? Do we tell them that we back them, or that we're against their support of ACTA?

We need actionable information, or pointers to where we can find it. Anyone know where to start?

It's amazing how long it took the private sector to rediscover good, old-fashioned intelligence analysis.

So, what are you doing? Besides looking down on someone who actually got off their ass and did something cool, I mean.