Thanks for pointing out these issues. I am sure that many Ubuntu MATE users would like to have more control over their system but aren’t even aware that there are various forms of activity logging enabled by default. I hope that the Ubuntu MATE team will find the time to provide solutions to these three issues and not just leave it up to the individual user to solve them manually. I have added a privacy tag to your original thread.
After these workarounds are discussed in more detail, would you consider to post a more concise presentation of these three (or more) privacy-related issues as a feature request in Thoughts & Feedback or Development Discussion or recategorize this thread?
Any step towards making Ubuntu MATE not only more privacy-conscious, that is, to offer privacy by choice (“Our users can opt in to more privacy”) but to eventually offer privacy by design (“Automatic activity logging is disabled by default but can be enabled if you wish to do so.”) deserves more attention on this forum.
A more general question regarding privacy and tracking was raised here.