Re: Bug#426581: meshlab - anyone still working on this
Paolo Cignoni writes ("Re: Bug#426581: meshlab - anyone still working on this"):
> Ok, I understand your point, I respect and, as i told you since
> beginning, i agree on disabling it for very pure, and ethically
> coherent distributions like Debian.
>
> As you understood, this data collecting it is something that i need
> for supporting the meshlab development, so i would like to find a
> solution that, make as easy as possible for debian to get rid of this
> (a bit nasty) phoning home, but i seems to me a bit silly to disable
> this feature for less coherent distributions like ubuntu for example.
When we make modifications in Debian to make the software work the way
we feel it ought to, we don't in general make those modifications
conditional on the package being built strictly for Debian. Indeed,
this is one of the reasons why people choose to derive from Debian.
So I don't think this is the right approach.
> I am only searching the best way to modify my personal interest (that
> in some sense conflicts with these policies).
I'm sympathetic to your concerns and I would like to find a way to
address them as well as we can without compromising the privacy of our
users in a way that we would consider unacceptable. I can't speak for
Teemu but I think we in Debian should regard the users of derivative
distros as our users too, insofar as our decisions affect those users.
I've asking in the internal Debian policy-setting fora whether we
would be able to collect on your behalf, on an opt-in basis, some of
the additional data which meshlab currently reports directly to you.
I know that the most important Debian derivatives also collect popcon
data (some of them don't change the reporting address, so that their
users' data is included in our analysis).
You mentioned Ubuntu. Ubuntu is somewhat less careful than Debian
about this kind of thing, they too are worried about privacy; I don't
think Ubuntu's developers would want their version of meshlab phoning
home like the Windows version either. It's probably worthwhile you
negotiating with Ubuntu's management to ask them whether they would be
able to help you by giving you popcon data and/or some interpretation
of it.
If you need help with your funding bodies to explain this kind of
thing, particularly to explain why the data is less complete for
Debian users, I would be happy to help.
Ian.
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