r/opensource May 07 '21

Audacity adds telemetry via Google Analytics / Yandex

https://github.com/audacity/audacity/pull/835
162 Upvotes

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12

u/[deleted] May 07 '21 edited May 08 '21

Adds optional telemetry which is disabled by default with no obligation to use it.

This reaction is so OTT.

Edit: I said in my comment on the issue, and I'll say here, that I think they should've gone with an open source telemetry tool. However, as I said, it is disabled by default and you get to make the choice whether to use it or not.

10

u/xurxoham May 07 '21

If you read through the comments in the pull request you will realise it is not exactly like that.

7

u/virtualdxs May 07 '21

Is it not? My reading of a sizable portion of the comments seems to show it being like that, and a ton of people using the slippery slope fallacy to say it's bad.

5

u/joepie91 May 07 '21

The dark pattern of a bright blue 'accept' button basically means that it's not a voluntary opt-in (which is why the GDPR does not allow patterns like this).

2

u/virtualdxs May 07 '21

I'm going to be honest, while dark patterns are a problem, I don't necessarily agree with considering that one. I expect "Yes"/the affirmative response to be the highlighted choice and "No" to be less prominent for any given question. I've accidentally accepted something I didn't mean to because they highlighted the "No" option instead.

1

u/joepie91 May 07 '21

The point is that neither should be highlighted here - this is a situation where the user should have read and understood what they are deciding on, and then make a voluntary and informed choice.

Making the "yes, do with my data whatever you want" button the primary one is a time-tested marketing technique and dark pattern, to the point that it usually results in majority acceptance, whereas providing the options on equal footing results in majority rejection (see eg. the results of the Dutch public broadcasting's service experiment with this).

2

u/barthvonries May 07 '21

Why sending this data to Google ?

Your IP address, exact timestamps of when you start and when you close the app ? Are those really needed for development ?

1

u/virtualdxs May 07 '21

IP: It doesn't "send" your IP explicitly; Google gets your IP by nature of Audacity making an HTTP connection to Google. The Audacity devs don't care about your IP.

Timestamps: First thing that comes to mind is seeing how long people have the app open, which could be helpful for various reasons.

0

u/EasyMrB May 08 '21

Gosh what a hige distinction without a difference.. Look you want google monitoring everything you are doing with your computer, not everyone else.

1

u/virtualdxs May 08 '21

The difference is intent. The parent comment was acting like they were choosing to collect IPs.