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Re: The number of popcon.debian.org-submissions is falling



On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 11:26:13PM +0200, Patrick Matthäi wrote:
> Maybe the default value at d-i for popcon should be set to true
> (report popcon statistics).
> atm it is false.

Absolutely not.  An installed Debian machine should be silent by
default.

> Yes I know, that many people (I am including myself in general)
> think, that we may abuse the data privacy with this default value,
> but..
> 
> 1) if $user read the message, he still could decide to deactivate it
> 2) with `installed packages only' I think no privacy data will be submitted
> 3) we get more popcon data, which helps Debian and his users

I have in the past worked for a non-profit where no sort of release of
information was allowed.  If the program crashed, we could not make a
crash report because it might expose client information without us
knowing it.  This kind of policy is not at all unusual for non-profits,
especially those in the medical field.

Because of the potential for unexpected surprises, this will almost
certainly result in a lost of trust in Debian by users and
administrators.  I cannot emphasize how bad an idea enabling reporting
of even anonymized, non-personal data by default is.

-- 
brian m. carlson / brian with sandals: Houston, Texas, US
+1 832 623 2791 | http://www.crustytoothpaste.net/~bmc | My opinion only
OpenPGP: RSA v4 4096b: 88AC E9B2 9196 305B A994 7552 F1BA 225C 0223 B187

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