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For what it's worth, I think Polar sounds awesome and excitedly downloaded it one of the last times it appeared here, but the tracking policy is a total deal br

For what it's worth, I think Polar sounds awesome and excitedly downloaded it one of the last times it appeared here, but the tracking policy is a total deal breaker for me. https://getpolarized.io/docs/tracking-policy.html https://getpolarized.io/docs/tracking-policy.html > Polar uses Google Analytics and other 3rd party services to track your usage of Polar for quality assurance, UI/UX and usability issues, fault detection, and adoption and usage of new features. > There may be data leaks (such as the name of a book in an exception log) but we try to keep this to either zero or a minimum by iterating and improving any potential data leaks. I appreciate that you are up front about it, but the attitude that you are entitled to my usage data and it's okay to introduce private data leaks (to third parties!) as long as you fix them later is enough to turn me off even if there was an opt out. It's too late to win me back but I would have happily paid for this if you took privacy seriously.

telesilla 8y ago
Oh yes this needs to be opt-in. There really is no need to be tracking usage. My own feature request here: I use Zotero for academic writing which takes care of formatting the bibliography. I would love to use Polar if it could also do this or if not, of it could somehow export a list of documents to Zotero (not sure if Zotero has an import module like this). I'd also need folders. If it had those two things, I'd be immediate subscriber because I have a million PDFs open at any one time where I forget where I am and where the good highlights are.
- meej 8y ago
  Agreed, as soon as I looked at the main page and saw "flashcards" and highlighting, I wanted it to work either like or with Zotero.
JohnFen 8y ago
> Polar uses Google Analytics and other 3rd party services to track your usage of Polar for quality assurance, UI/UX and usability issues, fault detection, and adoption and usage of new features. I agree, this is a showstopper. If this data is critical to the project, then the application should collect it directly and not use (or share data with) 3rd party services to do it.
burtonator 8y ago
Definitely this is not going away. I might make this a premium feature though. I'm NOT tracking anything private. I'm tracking things like whether you're clicking a button or not. This is how you're paying for the app. I literally CAN NOT build Polar without this data. > I appreciate that you are up front about it, but the attitude that you are entitled to my usage data The reverse is true as well. I wrote this app for free. You're not entitled to use it unless you run the analytics because that's how you're paying for it. I'm using your usage to improve the product. If it has an exception or is slow on your platform I want to know about it. If you're literally providing nothing of value in return I'm not interested in those types of users. I'm going to write a blog post about this but this perspective is completely wrong headed. You should be BEGGING developers to track your usage of the app as it greatly improves app design and reduces the cost of developing the app. Cohort analysis ALONE has been a gods send in developing Polar.
- donttrackmebro 8y ago
  > I wrote this app for free. You're not entitled to use it unless you run the analytics because that's how you're paying for it. Of course, I'm saying I would have loved to pay for it with money instead. > If it has an exception or is slow on your platform I want to know about it. You don't have to collect data behind my back to get that information. You could for example offer a way to review the information that is going to be sent, and let me decide for myself if it is too private to share. I would even prefer that to a blanket "opt out" for all the reasons you are saying. > You should be BEGGING developers to track your usage of the app as it greatly improves app design and reduces the cost of developing the app. I have never had the experience of seeing an application dramatically improved by forcing tracking on me. Usually it's been a sign that everything is about to become worse. I'm perfectly happy to participate in opt-in tracking and submit crash reports, especially when I can see for myself there is nothing sensitive included. I'm also technical enough to help with investigating more complex bugs and an avid contributor to open source. Please don't think that everyone who is privacy-conscious has nothing of value to offer you as a user.
- pwg 8y ago
  > > I appreciate that you are up front about it, but the attitude that you are entitled to my usage data > The reverse is true as well. I wrote this app for free. You're not entitled to use it unless you run the analytics because that's how you're paying for it. Then you really should add a License file specific for polar (you only seem to have imported license files for electron, chromium, and two resource modules) clearly stating this limitation. Note the below comments are based on what was found in the tar.gz on github. Right now, with no license file directed at Polar, it is ambiguous as to what limitations surrounding use/sharing exist. And, three of your license files (electron and the two modules that leaked in) are the MIT licence, where one is granted rights to: (quote) ... deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, ... subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. (end quote) So if one interprets the ambiguity of Polar's license status such that the three imported MIT files likely apply to Polar, then you have no stated restriction which matches your restriction of "no use, unless you give me google analytics".

telesilla 8y ago

Oh yes this needs to be opt-in. There really is no need to be tracking usage. My own feature request here: I use Zotero for academic writing which takes care of formatting the bibliography. I would love to use Polar if it could also do this or if not, of it could somehow export a list of documents to Zotero (not sure if Zotero has an import module like this). I'd also need folders. If it had those two things, I'd be immediate subscriber because I have a million PDFs open at any one time where I forget where I am and where the good highlights are.

meej 8y ago
Agreed, as soon as I looked at the main page and saw "flashcards" and highlighting, I wanted it to work either like or with Zotero.

JohnFen 8y ago

> Polar uses Google Analytics and other 3rd party services to track your usage of Polar for quality assurance, UI/UX and usability issues, fault detection, and adoption and usage of new features. I agree, this is a showstopper. If this data is critical to the project, then the application should collect it directly and not use (or share data with) 3rd party services to do it.

burtonator 8y ago

Definitely this is not going away. I might make this a premium feature though. I'm NOT tracking anything private. I'm tracking things like whether you're clicking a button or not. This is how you're paying for the app. I literally CAN NOT build Polar without this data. > I appreciate that you are up front about it, but the attitude that you are entitled to my usage data The reverse is true as well. I wrote this app for free. You're not entitled to use it unless you run the analytics because that's how you're paying for it. I'm using your usage to improve the product. If it has an exception or is slow on your platform I want to know about it. If you're literally providing nothing of value in return I'm not interested in those types of users. I'm going to write a blog post about this but this perspective is completely wrong headed. You should be BEGGING developers to track your usage of the app as it greatly improves app design and reduces the cost of developing the app. Cohort analysis ALONE has been a gods send in developing Polar.

donttrackmebro 8y ago
> I wrote this app for free. You're not entitled to use it unless you run the analytics because that's how you're paying for it. Of course, I'm saying I would have loved to pay for it with money instead. > If it has an exception or is slow on your platform I want to know about it. You don't have to collect data behind my back to get that information. You could for example offer a way to review the information that is going to be sent, and let me decide for myself if it is too private to share. I would even prefer that to a blanket "opt out" for all the reasons you are saying. > You should be BEGGING developers to track your usage of the app as it greatly improves app design and reduces the cost of developing the app. I have never had the experience of seeing an application dramatically improved by forcing tracking on me. Usually it's been a sign that everything is about to become worse. I'm perfectly happy to participate in opt-in tracking and submit crash reports, especially when I can see for myself there is nothing sensitive included. I'm also technical enough to help with investigating more complex bugs and an avid contributor to open source. Please don't think that everyone who is privacy-conscious has nothing of value to offer you as a user.
pwg 8y ago
> > I appreciate that you are up front about it, but the attitude that you are entitled to my usage data > The reverse is true as well. I wrote this app for free. You're not entitled to use it unless you run the analytics because that's how you're paying for it. Then you really should add a License file specific for polar (you only seem to have imported license files for electron, chromium, and two resource modules) clearly stating this limitation. Note the below comments are based on what was found in the tar.gz on github. Right now, with no license file directed at Polar, it is ambiguous as to what limitations surrounding use/sharing exist. And, three of your license files (electron and the two modules that leaked in) are the MIT licence, where one is granted rights to: (quote) ... deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, ... subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. (end quote) So if one interprets the ambiguity of Polar's license status such that the three imported MIT files likely apply to Polar, then you have no stated restriction which matches your restriction of "no use, unless you give me google analytics".