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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

#131

Post by falcolas »

TheLogothete wrote: post #98
mortenlarsen wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitions vary, but I once wrote these notes for the definition in a security policy. It is probably more broad than what some people would write. Malware ------- - Any software that actively attempts to do any of the following: - Do harm to the system, applications or data - Deliberately weakens system security - By changing system or user security settings - Contains or installs backdoors - Downloads updates as e…

I don't see how GA can be classified as malware according to this.

Automatically opting a user into data collection, without explicitly asking the user, is a dark pattern.

Requiring the user to set an environment variable to opt out is smarmy.

Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics

#132

Post by Matt3o12_ »

quotha wrote: post #42
mikevm wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

This is software, they can just ask instead!

Which might break some scripts that expect home brew not to require user input. The right way to do it would be to ask if a terminal was available but in reality, scripts are not careful enough to tell applications that they are in fact headless. I've seen some scripts break under that assumption.

Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics

#133

Post by mortenlarsen »

TheLogothete wrote: post #120
mortenlarsen wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Phones home...

It does not compromise the user's privacy in any way. GA prohibits PII. Also, the webmaster has to opt-in to share the data with Google in the first place.

Some people disagree. If they didn't, why is this on HN with a lot of comments from people who a unhappy with this change?

If software compromises my privacy, I feel that I have been betrayed and lost something that I can not take back.

If you don't get to automatically participate in a "anonymous" usage survey, have you lost something you can not undo?

That in my opinion, is why software should always err on the side of privacy.

Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics

#134

Post by toomuchtodo »

mortenlarsen wrote: post #77
throwanem wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Privacy should be the default.

Only if you're willing to pay for it. Otherwise, you trade privacy for convenience, or some other benefit.

Its, of course, always your choice if you're willing to trade it for something.

Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics

#135

Post by dewski »

SwellJoe wrote: post #71
cstrahan wrote: post #19

Yet another reason to ditch the antiquated Homebrew, and switch to the cross platform Nix: http://nixos.org/nix https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs https://blog.errright.com/switching-from-homebrew-to-nix/

Aren't the majority of Homebrew users on Mac OS X? Does Nix work on Mac OS X? Don't get me wrong: Homebrew is impressive in how many bad ideas it has implemented in a project that is so exceedingly popular; good marketing and ease of use are amazingly powerful. I thoroughly dislike Homebrew, and sincerely hope people choose not to use it, at all (but especially not on servers). And, also don't get me wrong: I really…

Could you provide constructive criticism for why Homebrew is so bad instead of lambast it?

Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics

#136

Post by Matt3o12_ »

SwellJoe wrote: post #71
cstrahan wrote: post #19

Yet another reason to ditch the antiquated Homebrew, and switch to the cross platform Nix: http://nixos.org/nix https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs https://blog.errright.com/switching-from-homebrew-to-nix/

Aren't the majority of Homebrew users on Mac OS X? Does Nix work on Mac OS X? Don't get me wrong: Homebrew is impressive in how many bad ideas it has implemented in a project that is so exceedingly popular; good marketing and ease of use are amazingly powerful. I thoroughly dislike Homebrew, and sincerely hope people choose not to use it, at all (but especially not on servers). And, also don't get me wrong: I really…

Could you elaborate what you dislike most about home brew? I only don't like that they refuse to package old versions, although they are still supported by the author and quite popular (I'm looking at you Python). Furthermore, it often leaves deprecated APIs on my computer without offering to upgrade them (because other packages rely on them).

Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics

#138

Post by gondo »

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"

its better to create am empty ~/.homebrew_analytics_user_uuid and remove write permissions

Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics

#139

Post by duncan_bayne »

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.

... which, if true, tells you something about the value of this 'feature' to the user.
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