4 ms·
I'm always amused by the way some people try to extend the definition of malware beyond its scope. This isn't malware. It's just anonymous usage tracking. If yo
by bitmapbrother 11y ago
I'm always amused by the way some people try to extend the definition of malware beyond its scope. This isn't malware. It's just anonymous usage tracking. If you don't like it you can turn it off. I hope you don't use a smartphone because the amount of intrinsic "malware" you must be subjected to must be unbearable.
"Malware" is an umbrella term used to refer to a variety of forms of hostile or intrusive software, including computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, ransomware, spyware, adware, scareware, and other malicious programs. It can take the form of executable code, scripts, active content, and other software.
- Touche 11y agoI didn't say that this usage of GA is malware, I said that GA, the network, is a malware. So while Homebrew may (or may not) be protecting their users identities while using a malware service, they are still choosing to use a malware service. Tracking people's online activity through a large percentage of the internet, without their consent or even knowledge qualifies as malicious to me.
- LeoPanthera 11y agoBut surely you can see the similarity here. The tracking software wasn't in Homebrew before, is added without asking you when you update, and is completely useless to you as a user but builds information about you and sends it to a third party. If it's not malware, it's certainly really similar to it.
- TheLogothete 11y agoIt is used to improve the product, why is this useless to the user?
- Touche 11y agoSoftware that ships Ask Toolbar in their installer say it's to improve the product as well.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- whateveracct 11y agonever underestimate people's principled paranoia rofl
- mortenlarsen 11y agoDefinitions vary, but I once wrote these notes for the definition in a security policy. It is probably more broad than what some people would write. Malware ------- - Any software that actively attempts to do any of the following: - Do harm to the system, applications or data - Deliberately weakens system security - By changing system or user security settings - Contains or installs backdoors - Downloads updates as executables - Use executables to wrap otherwise readable data - Expects higher or more privileges than is needed by it's function. - Circumvent the wishes or intention of the user - Makes it self the default application for file-types that already have an application assigned to them - Inserts itself into other applications against the users expectation (eg. as a plugin) - Uses the privileges of other applications to circumvent system policy - Hide its activity from inspection - Anti-debugging, and other rootkit like behaviour - Use "dark patterns" to trick the user into performing or agreeing to some action - Installs toolbars, etc. - Compromise the privacy of the user - Phones home, access data irrelevant to it's function - Resists removal
- TheLogothete 11y agoI don't see how GA can be classified as malware according to this.
- mortenlarsen 11y agoPhones home...
- TheLogothete 11y agoIt does not compromise the user's privacy in any way. GA prohibits PII. Also, the webmaster has to opt-in to share the data with Google in the first place.
- mortenlarsen 11y agoSome people disagree. If they didn't, why is this on HN with a lot of comments from people who a unhappy with this change? If software compromises my privacy, I feel that I have been betrayed and lost something that I can not take back. If you don't get to automatically participate in a "anonymous" usage survey, have you lost something you can not undo? That in my opinion, is why software should always err on the side of privacy.