Security News > 2021 > February > Creeped-out dev spins up an Ubuntu VM on Azure only to be immediately approached by a Canonical sales rep

An Azure customer was outraged after finding himself on the receiving end of an unexpected LinkedIn message from Ubuntu maker Canonical last night.

Shortly after a message turned up from an Enterprise Development representative at Ubuntu with the ominous phrase: "I saw that you spun up an Ubuntu image in Azure," and offering to be a point of contact.

The Register spoke to Bongiorni, who confirmed the sequence of events and noted that "Azure Portal's UI didn't provide any insight on whether that Template was coming with a specific ToS" as he cheerfully chose Ubuntu.

"Bongiorni reckoned that the sharing of data was"in some ways" understandable when spinning up a third party's template on Azure, but added: "Make it very clear when you are going to pick a specific VM from the Azure Portal UI. "I would not have deployed that if I knew someone would stalk me outside corporate channels."

"As per the Azure T&Cs, Microsoft shares with Canonical, the publisher of Ubuntu, the contact details of developers launching Ubuntu instances on Azure. These contact details are held in Canonical's CRM in accordance with privacy rules."

"On February 10th, a new Canonical Sales Representative contacted one of these developers via LinkedIn, with a poor choice of word. In light of this incident, Canonical will be reviewing its sales training and policies."

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2021/02/11/azure_ubuntu_data_sharing/