Bug Description

Hello, thank you for reading.

This bug is kind of high-level, and it took me a while to even connect it to Ubuntu. (Initially I thought this was Gmail's problem, but that seems unlikely now.) Here's what happened:

I recently got a new laptop. (Yay!) It's a ZaReason 430 UltraLap. It was shipped with Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS. When setting up my account, it offered to take a photo with the webcam and make that my login profile picture. I consented. I wanted to see the camera work. The photo is goofy, and not particularly flattering. I would never have put it anywhere for anyone else to see.

About a week ago I noticed that Gmail was now using this photo for my icon attached to all my mail! I certainly didn't authorize that. I would not even have agreed to it if offered. I've been using Firefox 16.0, in case that matters.

I found a file containing the image on my hard drive. (It was called /home/amber/.face) I removed it. I also did a find for jpegs, but didn't find anything else (but note that this would not have located the file called .face, either -- finding that was dumb luck.). I uploaded a different photo to my Gmail profile, copied a new photo to .face, and associated a new photo with my Ubuntu account.

Next time I looked the ugly photo was back. I have now removed it 10 or more times to no avail, and I have cleared all my cache and cookies, too. It always appears to go away for a time, and then reappears. After a while I decided it only reappeared after suspending and unsuspending my laptop (which also includes starting and restarting the wifi. I don't know if simply starting and restarting the wifi by itself triggers it).

Finally, I deleted the photo from Gmail, cleared the cache and cookies, closed Firefox, created a new account on my laptop, opened that, and opened Gmail on Firefox. That was nearly 24 hours ago, which is the longest I've been without the problem since I first noticed it. I have suspended and unsuspended 2 or 3 times, and the photo has not returned, so I now know that somehow this photo is being restored to Gmail from somewhere in my original Ubuntu account.

I find this incident absolutely egregious, as I feel that my privacy was violated. What a relief that the photo was merely ugly, and not obscene!

I'd be very grateful if someone would help me figure out how this is happening, and where the file is being stored.

Please let me know if any other details would help.

Best,

Amber