Packaging Jalview -- any general guidelines concerning privacy?
Hello,
I'm currently on the packaging of Jalview. I would like to get some
advice as Jalview upstream is collecting statistics on its use through
the Internet. Basically this amounts to 4 things, I'm quoting/commenting
their documentation:
- HTTP logs on the Jalview website
We record IP addresses of machines which access the web site,
either via the browser when downloading the application, or when the
Jalview Desktop user interface is launched.
- Questionnaires, from time to time
The questionnaire web service at
www.jalview.org/cgi-bin/questionnaire.pl is checked and a unique cookie
for the current questionnaire is stored in the Jalview properties file.
- The Jalview web services stack is contacted to retrieve the currently
available web services. All interactions with the public Jalview web
services are logged, but we delete all job data (input data and results)
after about two weeks.
- Google Analytics, used if user explicitly consents
Since Jalview 2.4.0b2, the Jalview Desktop records usage data with
Google Analytics via the JGoogleAnalytics class.
The Google Analytics logs for Jalview version 2.4 only record the
fact that the application was started, but in the future, we will use
this mechanism to improve the Desktop user interface, by tracking which
parts of the user interface are being used most often.
I would like to know if you have general practice or advice to give
concerning this: can we package as is or do we need to take some special
care about privacy?
If you have some pointers to provide me with, I will also be very happy.
Thanks a lot for reading,
Pierre
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