Remove Evolution? (and any other stealth installed phone home services)

Hi All, I’m running Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS, Trusty Tahr with TDE as my only desktop installed. I do have some Gnome (and probably KDE) odds and ends programs installed as well. I’ll also agree I’m pretty much a Luddite and have no desire for anything on my box talking to anyone on the Internet without my knowledge and express permission. tl:dr Q1: How do you find phone home services? Q2: How do you remove them? Q3: If Ubuntu isn’t it, what is? apt-get upgrade reported this morning that it wants to update “evolution-data-server-online-accounts.” Minor digging into wtf is this evolution thing (and why does it think it can phone home without me knowing it?) shows it’s a Gnome component that’s apparently very hard to remove. [a] In that digging I find several other services that seem to phone home without my knowledge or permission? michael@local [~]# ls -1 /usr/share/dbus-1/services {full list at [b]} com.google.code.AccountsSSO.SingleSignOn.service com.nokia.SingleSignOn.Backup.service com.nokia.singlesignonui.service and ??? musicstore-scope.service unity-scope-facebook.service unity-scope-flickr.service unity-scope-openclipart.service unity-scope-video-remote.service unity-scope-yelp.service Also in that digging, it seems that basically the only true way to get evolution (and its ilk) to stop bothering you is to: sudo mv /usr/lib/evolution /usr/lib/evolution-fu (see [a], Answer, “None of the above helped me”), which is a bit non-intuitive. Very cute though... I’m left with questions... Q1) With our resorting to something like Wireshark, how does one find all the packages that have phone home capabilities? Q2) As ‘apt-get --purge remove’ doesn’t seem to work all the time, what’s the safest way to remove/disable them? I went to Ubuntu (from CentOS) a couple years ago because it’s suppose to be ‘easier’ and it does do multimedia much better, but it doesn’t really seem to concern itself with customer ‘privacy.’ Q3) In the event this can’t be done in Ubuntu, is there a TDE supported *nix variation that may be ‘harder,’ but doesn’t just add a bunch of anti-privacy crap willy nilly? I guess I don’t really mind going back to (re)compiling things on each OS up-rev (libre, gimp, etc...), but it is a bit of a pita if there’s an alternative... Best and Thanks, Michael [a] https://askubuntu.com/questions/315640/how-do-i-completely-remove-evolution [b] michael@local [~]# ls -1 /usr/share/dbus-1/services ca.desrt.dconf.service com.canonical.certification.PlainBox1.service com.canonical.Friends.Dispatcher.service com.canonical.Friends.Service.service com.canonical.hud.service com.canonical.indicators.webcredentials.service com.canonical.Unity.Voice.service com.canonical.Unity.Webapps.Service.service com.canonical.webcredentials.capture.service com.google.code.AccountsSSO.SingleSignOn.service com.nokia.SingleSignOn.Backup.service com.nokia.singlesignonui.service com.ubuntu.OneConf.service com.ubuntu.SoftwareCenterDataProvider.service com.ubuntu.sso.service gnome-vfs-daemon.service gvfs-daemon.service gvfs-metadata.service indicator-keyboard.service music-preview-player.service musicstore-scope.service obex-client.service obex-data-server.service org.a11y.atspi.Registry.service org.a11y.Bus.service org.ayatana.bamf.service org.fedoraproject.Config.Printing.service org.freedesktop.ColorHelper.service org.freedesktop.FileManager1.service org.freedesktop.Geoclue.Master.service org.freedesktop.Geoclue.Providers.UbuntuGeoIP.service org.freedesktop.Notifications.service org.freedesktop.secrets.service org.freedesktop.Telepathy.AccountManager.service org.freedesktop.Telepathy.Client.Empathy.Auth.service org.freedesktop.Telepathy.Client.Empathy.Call.service org.freedesktop.Telepathy.Client.Empathy.Chat.service org.freedesktop.Telepathy.Client.Empathy.FileTransfer.service org.freedesktop.Telepathy.Client.Logger.service org.freedesktop.Telepathy.Client.Vino.service org.freedesktop.Telepathy.ConnectionManager.gabble.service org.freedesktop.Telepathy.ConnectionManager.haze.service org.freedesktop.Telepathy.ConnectionManager.idle.service org.freedesktop.Telepathy.ConnectionManager.salut.service org.freedesktop.Telepathy.Logger.service org.freedesktop.Telepathy.MissionControl5.service org.freedesktop.xesam.searcher.service org.gnome.Contacts.SearchProvider.service org.gnome.evince.Daemon.service org.gnome.evolution.dataserver.AddressBook.service org.gnome.evolution.dataserver.Calendar.service org.gnome.evolution.dataserver.Sources.service org.gnome.evolution.dataserver.UserPrompter.service org.gnome.FileRoller.service org.gnome.GConf.service org.gnome.gedit.service org.gnome.keyring.PrivatePrompter.service org.gnome.keyring.service org.gnome.keyring.SystemPrompter.service org.gnome.Nautilus.SearchProvider.service org.gnome.Nautilus.service org.gnome.Rhythmbox3.service org.gnome.ScreenSaver.service org.gnome.seahorse.Application.service org.gnome.zeitgeist.fts.service org.gnome.zeitgeist.service org.gtk.GLib.PACRunner.service org.gtk.Private.AfcVolumeMonitor.service org.gtk.Private.GPhoto2VolumeMonitor.service org.gtk.Private.MTPVolumeMonitor.service org.gtk.Private.UDisks2VolumeMonitor.service org.kde.knotify.service org.kde.kuiserver.service org.onboard-prediction.service sessioninstaller.service unity-lens-friends.service unity-scope-applications.service unity-scope-audacious.service unity-scope-calculator.service unity-scope-chromiumbookmarks.service unity-scope-clementine.service unity-scope-colourlovers.service unity-scope-devhelp.service unity-scope-facebook.service unity-scope-files-local.service unity-scope-firefoxbookmarks.service unity-scope-flickr.service unity-scope-gdrive.service unity-scope-gmusicbrowser.service unity-scope-gourmet.service unity-scope-guayadeque.service unity-scope-home.service unity-scope-manpages.service unity-scope-music.service unity-scope-musique.service unity-scope-openclipart.service unity-scope-picasa.service unity-scope-shotwell.service unity-scope-texdoc.service unity-scope-tomboy.service unity-scope-video-local.service unity-scope-video-remote.service unity-scope-virtualbox.service unity-scope-yelp.service unity-scope-zotero.service vandenoever.strigi.service