6 ms·

Maybe I am being uncharitable, but my initial reaction is: What is all this verbiage? Just make software that does not phone home. Audacity does not need to pho

Maybe I am being uncharitable, but my initial reaction is: What is all this verbiage? Just make software that does not phone home. Audacity does not need to phone home to implement any of the features that people actually use it for, so make it not phone home. There is no need for legalese or complex explanations. Whatever you think you are going to get out of getting more user data, just drop it. You do not need it. Just make the software not phone home, end of story. Like I said, though, maybe I am being uncharitable. Am I missing something?

TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
> Am I missing something I think so. It optionally phones home to see if there are version updates. It optionally phones home after a crash. They have to publish legalese to comply with GDPR because those phones to home store audacity version number, operating system and operating system version number, and country of origin (based on up). It allows them to know when it’s safe to drop support for certain operating system versions.
- axguscbklp 5y ago
  Why not just drop all that version updating and error reporting functionality?
  - InsaneOstrich 5y ago
    Because it's useful?
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
    … sure, and why not just publish the binaries on CD-ROM?
    - axguscbklp 5y ago
      Would they still need to publish legalese if they made it so that updates and sending of error reports required the user to click a button every time, and under the button there was some text explaining exactly what data was going to be sent?
      - ohgodplsno 5y ago
        Yes. Laws _require_ you to have a privacy notice. Just because your license says the software is provided AS IS does not mean it's enough. Noone is going to bother you if it's a small open source project by a bunch of maintainers, but as soon as you're a company, you have to.
        TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
        For the USA, that's not always true: https://www.swlaw.com/blog/data-security/2015/03/12/why-you-need-a-privacy-policy-part-2-avoiding-three-common-fumbles/#:~:text=There%20is%20no%20general%20federal,that%20can%20lead%20to%20liability https://www.swlaw.com/blog/data-security/2015/03/12/why-you-.... But I know Audacity has a sizable European userbase, too.
    - selfhoster11 5y ago
      Are you suggesting that Audacity is something that needs a lot of auto-updating? It's not like an OS. Updating it can wait.
      - dkdbejwi383 5y ago
        A vast majority of users are non-technical. Manually checking for updates for software can seem like a trivial thing to someone who knows how to use a computer, but many folks don't know how to do these things, and would miss out on fixes and features if they aren't made aware of updates. Also, it's an optional feature. You can just turn it off if it's not a benefit to you.
        5y ago
  - varajelle 5y ago
    Because they want their users to enjoy the latest version, and be able to provide a good experience by not having a crashy software.
    - Ygg2 5y ago
      See what other people noticed. It's checking when it's safe to cut versions of operating systems.
  - prokoudine 5y ago
    How often do you, upon having a free/libre software crash on you, rebuild it with debugging symbols, run it through gdb to replicate the crash, and then send a full backtrace to developers? I've done that in the past, more times than I care to remember, and never have I thought 'Blimey! That's a great use of my time! Let's do it again!'.
pabs3 5y ago
It is pretty simple to do telemetry and phoning home correctly; be transparent and give the user control. Show them exactly what is being sent, how it will be used, let them edit the data and let them choose to when/how send it or not send it. The 0ad project does this well IMO.
teknopaul 5y ago
Nope.

TedDoesntTalk 5y ago

> Am I missing something I think so. It optionally phones home to see if there are version updates. It optionally phones home after a crash. They have to publish legalese to comply with GDPR because those phones to home store audacity version number, operating system and operating system version number, and country of origin (based on up). It allows them to know when it’s safe to drop support for certain operating system versions.

axguscbklp 5y ago
Why not just drop all that version updating and error reporting functionality?
- InsaneOstrich 5y ago
  Because it's useful?
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
  … sure, and why not just publish the binaries on CD-ROM?
  - axguscbklp 5y ago
    Would they still need to publish legalese if they made it so that updates and sending of error reports required the user to click a button every time, and under the button there was some text explaining exactly what data was going to be sent?
    - ohgodplsno 5y ago
      Yes. Laws _require_ you to have a privacy notice. Just because your license says the software is provided AS IS does not mean it's enough. Noone is going to bother you if it's a small open source project by a bunch of maintainers, but as soon as you're a company, you have to.
      - TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
        For the USA, that's not always true: https://www.swlaw.com/blog/data-security/2015/03/12/why-you-need-a-privacy-policy-part-2-avoiding-three-common-fumbles/#:~:text=There%20is%20no%20general%20federal,that%20can%20lead%20to%20liability https://www.swlaw.com/blog/data-security/2015/03/12/why-you-.... But I know Audacity has a sizable European userbase, too.
  - selfhoster11 5y ago
    Are you suggesting that Audacity is something that needs a lot of auto-updating? It's not like an OS. Updating it can wait.
    - dkdbejwi383 5y ago
      A vast majority of users are non-technical. Manually checking for updates for software can seem like a trivial thing to someone who knows how to use a computer, but many folks don't know how to do these things, and would miss out on fixes and features if they aren't made aware of updates. Also, it's an optional feature. You can just turn it off if it's not a benefit to you.
      - 5y ago
- varajelle 5y ago
  Because they want their users to enjoy the latest version, and be able to provide a good experience by not having a crashy software.
  - Ygg2 5y ago
    See what other people noticed. It's checking when it's safe to cut versions of operating systems.
- prokoudine 5y ago
  How often do you, upon having a free/libre software crash on you, rebuild it with debugging symbols, run it through gdb to replicate the crash, and then send a full backtrace to developers? I've done that in the past, more times than I care to remember, and never have I thought 'Blimey! That's a great use of my time! Let's do it again!'.

pabs3 5y ago

It is pretty simple to do telemetry and phoning home correctly; be transparent and give the user control. Show them exactly what is being sent, how it will be used, let them edit the data and let them choose to when/how send it or not send it. The 0ad project does this well IMO.

teknopaul 5y ago

Nope.