3 ms·
The actual proposal: https://lwn.net/ml/fedora-devel/CAJqbrbeOZrHvYjvMCc=qGZD_VXBs3-qReeirr+F8t01Eq1sYhw@mail.gmail.com/ https://lwn.net/ml/fedora-devel/CAJqbr
by justinclift 3y ago
The actual proposal:
https://lwn.net/ml/fedora-devel/CAJqbrbeOZrHvYjvMCc=qGZD_VXBs3-qReeirr+F8t01Eq1sYhw@mail.gmail.com/ https://lwn.net/ml/fedora-devel/CAJqbrbeOZrHvYjvMCc=qGZD_VXB...
=== What data might we collect? ===
We are not proposing to collect any [...] particular metrics
just yet, because a process for Fedora community approval of
metrics to be collected does not yet exist. That said, in the
interests of maximum transparency, we wish to give you an idea
of what sorts of metrics we might propose to collect in the
future.
One of the main goals of metrics collection is to analyze
whether Red Hat is achieving its goal to make Fedora Workstation
the premier developer platform for cloud software development.
Accordingly, we want to know things like which IDEs are most
popular among our users, and which runtimes are used to create
containers using Toolbx.
Metrics can also be used to inform user interface design
decisions. For example, we want to collect the clickthrough
rate of the recommended software banners in GNOME Software to
assess which banners are actually useful to users. We also want
to know how frequently panels in gnome-control-center are
visited to determine which panels could be consolidated or
removed, because there are other settings we want to add, but
our usability research indicates that the current high quantity
of settings panels already makes it difficult for users
to find commonly-used settings.
Metrics can help us understand the hardware we should be
optimizing Fedora for. For example, our boot performance on hard
drives dropped drastically when systemd-readahead was removed.
Ubuntu has maintained its own readahead implementation, but
Fedora does not because we assume that not many users use Fedora
on hard drives. It would be nice to collect a metric that
indicates whether primary storage is a solid state drive or a
hard disk, so we can see actual hard drive usage instead of
guessing. We would also want to collect hardware information
that would be useful for collaboration with hardware vendors
(such as Lenovo), such as laptop model ID.
Other Fedora teams may have other metrics they wish to collect.
For example, Fedora localization wishes to count users of
particular locales to evaluate which locales are in poorer shape
relative to their usage.
This is only a small sample of what we might want to know; no
doubt other community members can think of many more interesting
data points to collect.
That last piece "no doubt other community members can think of many more interesting data points
to collect" sounds pretty bad for telemetry that's enabled by default, with people having to opt out of it. :(
- cesarb 3y agoPersonally, I feel very differently between collection of static information (like the CPU model, how much memory I have, or whether I'm still using a slow rotating HDD), and collection of dynamic information (which tabs of the settings app I use the most, whether I actually use Gnome Software at all, etc). The former mostly tells only how much money I have to spend on cool toys, and not much more than that; the later feels as if there's someone constantly looking over my shoulder, which makes me uncomfortable.
- justinclift 3y agoYeah, monitoring which tabs a user clicks on in an application is creepy.
- jacquesm 3y agoIt's beyond creepy and in the EU a violation of privacy according to the GDPR: data collection without consent.
- rcxdude 3y agoAh yes, always hunting for reasons to remove functionality from GNOME. I wonder if they would try to collect data on how many users enable options for accessible from the GUI or use extensions to add back basic functionality?
- CaptArmchair 3y agoMoreover it's "opt-out" and not "opt-in": > A new metrics collection setting will be added to the privacy page in gnome-initial-setup and also to the privacy page in gnome-control-center. This setting will be a toggle that will enable or disable metrics collection for the entire system. We want to ensure that metrics are never submitted to Fedora without the user's knowledge and consent, so the underlying setting will be off by default in order to ensure metrics upload is not unexpectedly turned on when upgrading from an older version of Fedora. However, we also want to ensure that the data we collect is meaningful, so gnome-initial-setup will default to displaying the toggle as enabled, even though the underlying setting will initially be disabled. (The underlying setting will not actually be enabled until the user finishes the privacy page, to ensure users have the opportunity to disable the setting before any data is uploaded.) This is to ensure the system is opt-out, not opt-in. This is essential because we know that opt-in metrics are not very useful. Few users would opt in, and these users would not be representative of Fedora users as a whole. We are not interested in opt-in metrics. Those last three lines are essentially adding insult to injury. I have no problem with telemetry, I do have a problem with telemetry being on "by default" as it puts the burden of safeguarding privacy squarely with the user. As an individual you have to make sure the toggle is set to "off" yourself, and assume that telemetry really is switched off. Back in february, the Go project proposed to add opt-out telemetry in the Go toolchain and they were almost torn in half over a weekend.