Why my machine uploading a lot for no reason ? Am I being tracked or something?

Mostakim

10/15/22, 7:58 PM

Everytime I initiate an internet activity on my ubuntu 20.04 through an app whether it is a browser or any app that requires internet, I see via the System Monitor app something is being uploaded/sent somewhere. Sometimes the upload is in some bytes per second sometimes a large KiB/s. ("sending" on the image)

After spending a large amount of time on the internet via my machine I eventually open System Monitor to see how much data tottally sent. I then can see sometimes it is just 105 MiB after 2/3 hours or sometimes 400-500 MiB after the same time. ("Total Sent" in the image)

As I'm a new ubuntu user, I'm getting purplexed to figure this out. I don't exactly know where the data is being sent (don't know the right way to figure it out).

So my queries are -

Why a large number of data being sent?
Can it be a potential spy operation?
I reinstalled the OS after deleting everything and it's still the same. So can it be ubuntu who is collecting or uploading data? (Although I turned off ubuntu's report/technical data collection)
How do I properly see, what is being uploaded and exactly where it is going ?

Thanks in advance...

0 + 6

lubuntu

upload

20.04

Terrance

10/15/22, 8:06 PM

You might want to look into using a program like wireshark where it will allow you to see where your packets are going.

user535733

10/15/22, 8:10 PM

I think only Question 4 here is answerable. The rest is asking for speculation and guessing instead of useful answers.

Mostakim

10/15/22, 8:15 PM

@user535733 Thank You and please help me with a guideline or an answer. It would be a great help. Or least you can do, is link to something where it shows a step by step guide on monitoring traffic.

Terrance

10/15/22, 8:23 PM

https://linuxhint.com/install_wireshark_ubuntu/

user535733

10/15/22, 9:18 PM

@Mostakim you must do your part by editing your question. When your question is answerable, then folks will answer it

guiverc

10/15/22, 11:00 PM

If you have a browser active, activity (often large) is to be expected, especially if the browser has script languages; sites use the scripts to allow your local system to draw the page saving their serving costs (scripts often keep running). Extensions can use a load of bandwidth too, but opening a page like gmail uses loads of bandwidth (it constantly checks for new mail etc). You can disable that, but you'll need to manually refresh page to check for new mail yourself. Apps (esp. browsers) use bandwidth but they'll vary on what pages you visit & what you've not locked down.

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: Why my machine uploading a lot for no reason ? Am I being tracked or something?

TH: ทำไมเครื่องของฉันอัปโหลดจำนวนมากโดยไม่มีเหตุผล ? ฉันถูกติดตามหรืออะไร?

RO: De ce mașina mea încarcă mult fără motiv? Sunt urmărit sau ceva?

RU: Почему моя машина загружает много без причины? Меня отслеживают или что?

VI: Tại sao máy của tôi tải lên rất nhiều mà không có lý do? Tôi đang bị theo dõi hay cái gì đó?

Post an answer

Most people don’t grasp that asking a lot of questions unlocks learning and improves interpersonal bonding. In Alison’s studies, for example, though people could accurately recall how many questions had been asked in their conversations, they didn’t intuit the link between questions and liking. Across four studies, in which participants were engaged in conversations themselves or read transcripts of others’ conversations, people tended not to realize that question asking would influence—or had influenced—the level of amity between the conversationalists.