Metrics and your privacy

[James Wilkinson]

Bruno Wolff III <bruno at wolff.to> wrote:
>I like the approach you suggest below, but I have comments on the UUID
>mentioned in the example. Unless there is going to be some followup later
>I don't see how it would be useful. If it is being sent, then it should be
>displayed with the other information being sent.

Vivek J. Patankar wrote:
> The UUID will serve as a unique install identifier. A count of the
> number of UUIDs would give an accurate figure of the total number of
> installs that have opted to report in.

When else will you want to identify the install? You can get "an accurate
figure of the total number of installs that have opted to report in"
simply by counting the number of connections. If you want to ensure that
the connection is made, and only made once, you can do that client-side.

This is all going to be Open Source -- anyone who *really* wants to
distort the figures can do so.

Mike: what *I'm* getting from this is two basic principles:

 * "silent phone home" is Bad and Wrong. But users who use yum should
   expect that their computers will contact the Internet. This should be
   made more explicit.

 * an opt-in phone home with limited machine information is ethically OK
   and could provide users with the impetus to respond.

James.

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