Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 329 posts

Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics

#31

Post by daveguy »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #10
xutopia wrote: post #5

The fact that they are transparent about this, that we can opt-out if we want and that they're open source makes me feel more than comfortable sharing anonymous usage information with them. Homebrew has been amazing for me!

Is an alert displayed to the user the first time it tries to send info to Google? If not, that is far from "transparent". It's good that they tell you how to opt out on the website, but I can't remember the last time I went to the website. Probably when I first installed Homebrew on this Mac.

This. Either everyone should be notified before the first google analytics transmission so that they can choose to opt in our out. Or the default should be off and maybe on new installs they can choose to opt in. At the opt in/out dialog (when you give the users a choice) you can make the default to opt-in, but having the default as opt-in without any input from the user is bad form. It is similar to spammers calling your e-mail address "double opt-in" because they got you to open an e-mail and you didn't click the unsubscribe link.

Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics

#32

Post by merqurio »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #10
xutopia wrote: post #5

The fact that they are transparent about this, that we can opt-out if we want and that they're open source makes me feel more than comfortable sharing anonymous usage information with them. Homebrew has been amazing for me!

Is an alert displayed to the user the first time it tries to send info to Google? If not, that is far from "transparent". It's good that they tell you how to opt out on the website, but I can't remember the last time I went to the website. Probably when I first installed Homebrew on this Mac.

seems like not, yet https://github.com/Homebrew/brew/issues/142

Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics

#34

Post by isomorphic »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #3

Set HOMEBREW_NO_ANALYTICS=1 to opt out. The right thing to do would be to make it opt in, not opt out. (Which would not be without precedent. Debian's popcon is opt-in.)

Or, you could edit /usr/local/Library/Homebrew/utils/analytics.rb to send Google Analytics garbage (from random UUIDs) until Homebrew makes this feature opt-in.

Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics

#35

Post by oconnore »

vemv wrote: post #28
LeoPanthera wrote: post #3

Set HOMEBREW_NO_ANALYTICS=1 to opt out. The right thing to do would be to make it opt in, not opt out. (Which would not be without precedent. Debian's popcon is opt-in.)

Where's your reasoning? Homebrew gave theirs. Keep in mind that no personal info is ever sent. Just a random UUID.

> no personal info

> Just your universally unique id

...

Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics

#36

Post by toomuchtodo »

binaryanomaly wrote: post #14
LeoPanthera wrote: post #3

Set HOMEBREW_NO_ANALYTICS=1 to opt out. The right thing to do would be to make it opt in, not opt out. (Which would not be without precedent. Debian's popcon is opt-in.)

Totally agree. I don't feel too comfortable bout google knowing everything about me... Should be opt in.

Did you read the link? Your actions cannot be tied specifically to you.

Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics

#37

Post by fabulist »

jldugger wrote: post #20
Touche wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree. Google Analytics is a network of companies that has agreed to privately collection information about users without their permission or even knowledge. It is malware that should not be included in Homebrew. The only ethical decision we can make as developers is not to use it.

Would be somehow more ethical if they set up their own piwik instance to collect the same data?

Collecting telemetry is reasonably, but it seems inappropriate for Google to get a copy and to be able to identify which of their users installed a particular piece of software from the IP address.

So yes. Running their own server would be much preferable.

Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics

#39

Post by iagooar »

jldugger wrote: post #20
Touche wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree. Google Analytics is a network of companies that has agreed to privately collection information about users without their permission or even knowledge. It is malware that should not be included in Homebrew. The only ethical decision we can make as developers is not to use it.

Would be somehow more ethical if they set up their own piwik instance to collect the same data?

I think it would be, yes. At least, it would not get into the hands of an external 3rd party (that as we know, lives from selling / using data they gather from people).
Post reply on HN