The Privacy Leak in the PDF Viewer
Ubuntu’s default document viewer, Evince (often simply labelled “Document Viewer”), is an excellent, lightweight tool for reading PDFs. However, it features an aggressive tracking mechanism that automatically saves the file path and metadata of every single document you open into a “Recent Documents” database. If you use your Ubuntu machine for sensitive financial planning, legal research, or reviewing confidential medical records, anyone who gains access to your user account (or simply looks over your shoulder when you open the application menu) can instantly see a highly revealing list of your most private files.
Disabling the Tracking Daemon
To secure your privacy and stop Evince (and the broader GNOME desktop environment) from permanently logging your document reading history, you must disable the global file tracking setting.
Because Evince relies on the GNOME desktop’s central tracking service, you must disable it via the main system settings. Open your application drawer and search for Settings to launch the main control panel. In the left-hand navigation sidebar, click on Privacy. In the main window, look for the section titled File History & Trash (or “Usage & History” on older Ubuntu versions). Click on it. You will see a master toggle switch labelled File History. Click this toggle to turn it completely Off. For maximum security, you should also click the “Clear History…” button below it to wipe the existing database. From this point forward, Evince will function perfectly, but it will leave absolutely zero trace of the confidential PDFs you have viewed.