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Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics

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Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics

#41

Post by toomuchtodo »

oconnore wrote: post #35
vemv wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ...

"oconnore" is a perfectly valid unique identifier on HackerNews that doesn't tie to anything about you if you don't have your email address in your profile. This is no different.

Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics

#42

Post by quotha »

mikevm wrote: post #4
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.)

That's probably true, but then no one would opt-in.

This is software, they can just ask instead!

Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics

#43

Post by isomorphic »

merqurio wrote: post #32
LeoPanthera wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I am confirming that Homebrew silently starts talking to Google with no warning after a "brew upgrade".

Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics

#45

Post by geoelectric »

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.

One decent reason would be that existing installs arguably shouldn't change their privacy considerations without a hoop to jump through.

Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics

#46

Post by ecesena »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #41
oconnore wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> no personal info > Just your universally unique id ...

"oconnore" is a perfectly valid unique identifier on HackerNews that doesn't tie to anything about you if you don't have your email address in your profile. This is no different.

he does have the email, though

Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics

#47

Post by davesque »

mikevm wrote: post #4
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.)

That's probably true, but then no one would opt-in.

That's kinda the point.

Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics

#48

Post by LeoPanthera »

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.

My reasoning? Because it's good to respect the privacy and choices of your users. Homebrew never called home to Google in the past, most people would not reasonably expect it to suddenly start doing so without letting them know.

Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics

#49

Post by throwanem »

fit2rule wrote: post #9
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.

Yeah, I'll confess that this is a real deal breaker for me personally .. I'll be having a closer look at ports and maybe fink soon. Maybe after all its time to get off OSX and back to Linux, where these sorts of things happen less frequently ..

If it means that much to you, why not add host file entries to point GA's DNS records at 0.0.0.0 or something else invalid? If you don't trust that either, supplement it with packet filter rules to drop traffic heading to the IP addresses to which those names (currently) resolve. Switching platforms seems like a major overreaction here.

Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics

#50

Post by LeoPanthera »

0x0 wrote: post #38
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.)

You may also want to "rm ~/.homebrew_analytics_user_uuid"

You could really screw with their statistics by regularly changing the contents of that file.
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