Metrics and your privacy

[Mike McGrath]

On 11/22/06, Bruno Wolff III <bruno at wolff.to> wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 22, 2006 at 10:06:03 +0000,
>   Andy Green <andy at warmcat.com> wrote:
>
> One of the reasons I like free software is that it doesn't (normally) try to
> spy on you.
>
> Currently Fedora is a pretty good fit for me, but if it turns into spyware,
> I will be looking at other options. (Though in the short run I would probably
> look at respinning the install DVD to include modified packages without the
> spyware.)
>

I think you guys are focusing too much on semantics.  Yum, updates,
checking for updates, caching, blah.  What we're talking about is a
phone home mechanism that can easily be disabled at install time.

Would you disable it?

What if it only ran once?

What if it anonymously (not secretly) sent a hardware profile that we
could then use to better support your hardware?

                -Mike