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The information brew collects I would hardly call personally identifiable. Take a look at what they collect: https://github.com/Homebrew/brew/blob/master/docs/A

by daenney 10y ago

The information brew collects I would hardly call personally identifiable. Take a look at what they collect: https://github.com/Homebrew/brew/blob/master/docs/Analytics.md https://github.com/Homebrew/brew/blob/master/docs/Analytics....

jakobegger 10y ago
They can call it "anonymous data" as much as they want, but in the end it's still data transmitted to Google's servers. If you are simultaneously logged into your Google account on that computer, the information is not anonymous anymore. Google could with high probability correlate connections.
- daenney 10y ago
  Sure, but then the problem isn't the information they collect but the fact that it goes to Google. Short from them setting up their own analytics service though, to whichever one you send this data it'll be traceable up to some extent. Google just might have a larger trove of data about you, but that's also through your own doing.
- andybak 10y ago
  > They can call it "anonymous data" as much as they want, but in the end it's still data transmitted to Google's servers. You appear to be saying that it's wrong to send any data to Google - which strikes me as an indefensibly extreme position. For example if they were tracking a simple count "number of times anyone anywhere has run brew" and it was stored as a single global integer then it's hard to imagine what issue you could have with it as it's basically no worse than a simple hit counter on a website. So what are you saying? Surely the problem has to relate to what data is collected?
  - jakobegger 10y ago
    I'm saying that if you make your software talk to Google, don't say that it collects "anonymous aggregate data". The data it sends could easily be traced back to you (by Google). And after all the Snowden revelations it's very naive to assume that Google (or any other company) will protect your data.
    - andybak 10y ago
      Doesn't that depend on what's being sent? Either it's personally identifiable (or at least de-anonalysable) or it's not. Within reason some things are not of any real interest to anyone. What is the threat model here?

by daenney 10y ago

jakobegger 10y ago

They can call it "anonymous data" as much as they want, but in the end it's still data transmitted to Google's servers. If you are simultaneously logged into your Google account on that computer, the information is not anonymous anymore. Google could with high probability correlate connections.

daenney 10y ago
Sure, but then the problem isn't the information they collect but the fact that it goes to Google. Short from them setting up their own analytics service though, to whichever one you send this data it'll be traceable up to some extent. Google just might have a larger trove of data about you, but that's also through your own doing.
andybak 10y ago
> They can call it "anonymous data" as much as they want, but in the end it's still data transmitted to Google's servers. You appear to be saying that it's wrong to send any data to Google - which strikes me as an indefensibly extreme position. For example if they were tracking a simple count "number of times anyone anywhere has run brew" and it was stored as a single global integer then it's hard to imagine what issue you could have with it as it's basically no worse than a simple hit counter on a website. So what are you saying? Surely the problem has to relate to what data is collected?
- jakobegger 10y ago
  I'm saying that if you make your software talk to Google, don't say that it collects "anonymous aggregate data". The data it sends could easily be traced back to you (by Google). And after all the Snowden revelations it's very naive to assume that Google (or any other company) will protect your data.
  - andybak 10y ago
    Doesn't that depend on what's being sent? Either it's personally identifiable (or at least de-anonalysable) or it's not. Within reason some things are not of any real interest to anyone. What is the threat model here?