One of the solutions suggested by rms strikes me as reasonable: Ubuntu should make make search only local by default, but show a "search online too" toggle button right next to all search results.
If Ubuntu does that, the problem goes away, because users who want only local search don't have to do anything, and users who want global search can turn online search on/off at will by clicking a toggle button right there on the Unity panel.
No it doesn't. Ubuntu's "problem" is that it's not making any money, at least not enough to support the 500 employees it has. Making it non-default will kill 99% of the revenue from Amazon since hardly anyone(not enough people to make money on) will go out of the way to click the toggle button.
Having "a family to feed" is not a good defense for spying. They need to downsize apparently. Not a bad thing either. I could do without the constant churn of desktop components.
Trying guilt your customer base into doing something is a bad plan, especially on Linux. If people really do start to dislike this option the same day someone will post a script to remove it. Now you will have people using your product and Canonical is left holding the bag.
I think it's time to research other ways of keeping the lights on.
They could put a special plea on the install screen for permission to enable all the search functions. That might get a large number of folks clicking OK to enable these while still giving informed consent.
This is a problem with paying people to work on an open source project, no? Either those people accept working without pay, or else they have to make compromises that might involve defying the principles of the Open Source Movement.
Theoretically a company can get around this by offering a commercial enterprise on top of their free project, but that's harder to pull off, especially if the point of your project is to offer a good enough open source environment that people want to use it.
If Ubuntu does that, the problem goes away, because users who want only local search don't have to do anything, and users who want global search can turn online search on/off at will by clicking a toggle button right there on the Unity panel.