I just found this out recently. So this isn’t actually Nautilus itself but it’s the file previewer (Gnome Sushi) that comes with it. If you select a file and press the spacebar, it will automatically preview the file if it supported. If the file is an audio file, it will automatically fetch album art from the web, and if the file is an HTML file, it can make third-party requests. IMHO this is a huge privacy issue. For example if you were browsing the web using Tor Browser and saved a page to view offline, and then later accidentally opened it using the file previewer, any third-party requests will leak out the clearnet.

This is an open issue and I don’t expect it to be fixed anytime soon, so the easiest solution is to simply uninstall Gnome Sushi (on Fedora, it is the sushi package). On atomic distros if Gnome Sushi is installed as a flatpak you might be able to revoke internet permissions for it using Flatseal, though I have not tested this.

Edit: I’m aware that KDE also has file previewers, but I’m not sure if they have the same issue. If anybody else knows please leave a comment letting us know

  • ReakDuck@lemmy.ml
    32·
    2 months ago

    People say Qt sucks. But there is literally no better alternative to the KDE environment. Either Dolphin or tons of other apps just have more features and settings compared to GTK ones.

    Unsure if they have the same issue

  • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    1·
    2 months ago

    While good for privacy, this sounds like an awful UX change for the average person. Some sort of nice toggle to disable it would be good, but removing it all together would probably annoy more people than it benefits.

    • Mike@lemm.ee
      1·
      2 months ago

      What’s good to the user is what the user wants its device to do. Simple as.

    • cujo@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      I have the sneaking suspicion this was supposed to be sarcastic, but the Internet doesn’t carry “tone”… Am I correct? 😂

        • cujo@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          As much as people whine about it as a trend, “/s” goes a long way. 😂

          There’s no winning… I get you, though. And you’re right, they do think they know best… Which is why I won’t use GNOME. I left Windows for the same reason. And I’ll catch a lot of hate for it, but IMO GNOME is far too opinionated about how the end-user “should” interact with their PC for my tastes.

  • cmgvd3lw@discuss.tchncs.de
    0·
    2 months ago

    Well its also a simple browser so it will preview the HTML page like any other browser would. But I don’t know about audio files though.

    • Zagorath@aussie.zoneEnglish
      2·
      2 months ago

      IMO a “simple browser” of this sort should display literally only the content in the HTML file itself. It shouldn’t even view CSS stored in a separate local CSS file, let alone reach out to the web to download more content.

  • easily3667@lemmus.orgEnglish
    01·
    2 months ago

    Still not worse than the simple act of having to use gnome for longer than it takes to install something, anything else