5 ms·

What about open source spyware?

by AzzieElbab 5y ago

dane-pgp 5y ago
It would probably have such a bad UX that no one will bother installing it. Problem solved.
- hughrr 5y ago
  That is both painful to read and accurate.
blooalien 5y ago
There was recently a big kerfuffle over something kinda like that. Look into recent noise about Audacity audio editor to see how that played out… ;) Edit: Curious what part of the above statement is unhelpful or inaccurate…
- commoner 5y ago
  Since the telemetry is opt-in, some people disagree that Audacity should be called "spyware" for including it as an option. From the original pull request: > Telemetry is strictly optional and disabled by default. No data is shared unless you choose to opt-in and enable telemetry. https://github.com/audacity/audacity/pull/835 https://github.com/audacity/audacity/pull/835 Ars Technica published an article describing the controversy as "massively overblown" and I agree with their analysis: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/07/no-open-source-audacity-audio-editor-is-not-spyware/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/07/no-open-source-audac...
  - blooalien 5y ago
    > Since the telemetry is opt-in, some people disagree that Audacity should be called "spyware" … I could totally see that I guess… My point was more that the way folks reacted to that would probably be a pretty accurate indicator of how well "open source spyware" would be likely received. ;)
- boomboomsubban 5y ago
  It resulted in a spyware/telemetry free fork. Which is how free software spyware will generally go. >Curious what part of the above statement is unhelpful or inaccurate… I have no idea how you think the incident played out. Your post is basically "something like that happened, there were results."
  - blooalien 5y ago
    > It resulted in a spyware/telemetry free fork. Which is how free software spyware will generally go. Pretty much exactly my thinking on the topic. It also resulted in them changing and/or clarifying some of the things they thought were the cause of the complaints. Still led to a fork anyhow.
- AzzieElbab 5y ago
  Not sure audacity telemetry will get you chopped to pieces in your country’s embassy
  - blooalien 5y ago
    I sure do hope not, but these days it sometimes seems like too many humans are waiting for any excuse to chop each other to pieces (figuratively and literally).

What about open source spyware?

dane-pgp 5y ago

It would probably have such a bad UX that no one will bother installing it. Problem solved.

hughrr 5y ago
That is both painful to read and accurate.

blooalien 5y ago

There was recently a big kerfuffle over something kinda like that. Look into recent noise about Audacity audio editor to see how that played out… ;) Edit: Curious what part of the above statement is unhelpful or inaccurate…

commoner 5y ago
Since the telemetry is opt-in, some people disagree that Audacity should be called "spyware" for including it as an option. From the original pull request: > Telemetry is strictly optional and disabled by default. No data is shared unless you choose to opt-in and enable telemetry. https://github.com/audacity/audacity/pull/835 https://github.com/audacity/audacity/pull/835 Ars Technica published an article describing the controversy as "massively overblown" and I agree with their analysis: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/07/no-open-source-audacity-audio-editor-is-not-spyware/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/07/no-open-source-audac...
- blooalien 5y ago
  > Since the telemetry is opt-in, some people disagree that Audacity should be called "spyware" … I could totally see that I guess… My point was more that the way folks reacted to that would probably be a pretty accurate indicator of how well "open source spyware" would be likely received. ;)
boomboomsubban 5y ago
It resulted in a spyware/telemetry free fork. Which is how free software spyware will generally go. >Curious what part of the above statement is unhelpful or inaccurate… I have no idea how you think the incident played out. Your post is basically "something like that happened, there were results."
- blooalien 5y ago
  > It resulted in a spyware/telemetry free fork. Which is how free software spyware will generally go. Pretty much exactly my thinking on the topic. It also resulted in them changing and/or clarifying some of the things they thought were the cause of the complaints. Still led to a fork anyhow.
AzzieElbab 5y ago
Not sure audacity telemetry will get you chopped to pieces in your country’s embassy
- blooalien 5y ago
  I sure do hope not, but these days it sometimes seems like too many humans are waiting for any excuse to chop each other to pieces (figuratively and literally).