> I have to add resources to my system (env vars) in order to opt-out - and that is the issue! FWIW, I use "brew analytics off", not an environment variable.

> I have to add resources to my system (env vars) in order to opt-out - and that is the issue! FWIW, I use "brew analytics off", not an environment variable. You can't install brew without adding resources to your system. But I think your real complaint is not about resources, but that the default is "opt-in with a warning" rather than "opt-out then ask for permission". Which I can understand and agree with. What I disagree with is characterizing the process as "hidden or hard to opt-out." > There are no hints/tips about this produced to educate a new user - if it weren't for your help, I wouldn't have known. I don't understand how you can say this. The hint/tip is produced in the installer output. I quoted it. It even uses a terminal bell and bold text. I can understand that you might prefer, say entering "yes/no" to a "may we enable analytics?" question (though it's a bit more complicated as someone may be fine with the new EU-based InfluxDB analytics but not Google Analytics). But that's not the same as saying there are "no hints/tips about this produced to educate a new user", when it's right there in the installation output. > merely ask the user if its okay, after 5 or 10 runs Tracking the number of runs since the previous report is also adding resources to your system, which makes it hard for me to understand how adding those resources to your system is fine but adding an on/off resource is not. I agree it's a dark pattern which makes it less likely that people will opt-out. But I also think "unfeasible" is not an good characterization of "read the installation output then run 'brew analytics off'".