Metrics and your privacy

[Ralf Corsepius]

On Wed, 2006-11-22 at 10:38 -0600, Mike McGrath wrote:
> 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. 

You don't seem to be aware that such kind of spy-ware is heavily being
fought against in many parts of the world and is a major political and
legal topic, there. 

>  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?
Definitely. IMO, it MUST be disabled by default and MUST require manual
activation.

> What if it only ran once?
My first step would be to block it.

> What if it anonymously (not secretly) sent a hardware profile that we
> could then use to better support your hardware?
Inacceptable, if being enabled by default. 

Also very questionable, legally. Definitely illegal if being combined
with personal data.

Ralf