Remove default "terraform" partner_id • Hacker News Board

Re: Remove default "terraform" partner_id

#71

Post by mitchellh » Tue, Oct 29, 2019, 6:24 PM UTC

takeda wrote: post #68

mitchellh wrote: post #55

Hi everyone, I'm the founder of HashiCorp. I want to make something clear up front that this does NOT allow us to see resource usage by Terraform user and does NOT result in credits or revenue sharing at all. HashiCorp has no direct access to this information in any form. Before explaining "why" we do this, I do want to apologize and say that adding this without proper explanation was a mistake. It isn't clear why it…

Why an user agent is not enough to do just that?

I believe they do use the user agent to a certain extent but what I've been told is that their analytics systems are better suited to work with the partner ID.

Re: Remove default "terraform" partner_id

#72

Post by isoprophlex » Tue, Oct 29, 2019, 6:25 PM UTC

mitchellh wrote: post #55

Hi everyone, I'm the founder of HashiCorp. I want to make something clear up front that this does NOT allow us to see resource usage by Terraform user and does NOT result in credits or revenue sharing at all. HashiCorp has no direct access to this information in any form. Before explaining "why" we do this, I do want to apologize and say that adding this without proper explanation was a mistake. It isn't clear why it…

Tone-deaf faceless pr Twitter accounts out there slinging corporate bullshit, take note: this is how you communicate with your community if you really care about them.

Thanks for the very thoughtful response, and thank you for providing us with your fantastic software!

Re: Remove default "terraform" partner_id

#73

Post by kraig » Tue, Oct 29, 2019, 6:50 PM UTC

orvtech wrote: post #67

mitchellh wrote: post #55

Hi everyone, I'm the founder of HashiCorp. I want to make something clear up front that this does NOT allow us to see resource usage by Terraform user and does NOT result in credits or revenue sharing at all. HashiCorp has no direct access to this information in any form. Before explaining "why" we do this, I do want to apologize and say that adding this without proper explanation was a mistake. It isn't clear why it…

> ...Going forward, we will be building an option to opt out of using this partner ID... One should be opted out by default and the option should be build to opt in.

i dont know why this is getting downvoted

Re: Remove default "terraform" partner_id

#74

Post by bdcravens » Tue, Oct 29, 2019, 7:06 PM UTC

rossmohax wrote: post #66

karambir wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure about this. Till recently I have mostly used their products with just needing to read some docs and initial guides. Only recently I was using Terraform and Packer so much that I had fumbled on some issues and saw the community discussions on those. Hashicorp was engaging there atleast.

You'll see when you open small bugfix PR and they let it rot or when stumble upin years old issue, discussed over and over again without any resolution in sight.

I've had an issue (in my case the VWWare provider for Vagrant) that didn't get the resolution I wanted, but on the whole, I feel they do a good job. As a smallish company, they have to be very selective WRT resource allocation.

Re: Remove default "terraform" partner_id

#75

Post by paulddraper » Tue, Oct 29, 2019, 7:18 PM UTC

kraig wrote: post #73

orvtech wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ...Going forward, we will be building an option to opt out of using this partner ID... One should be opted out by default and the option should be build to opt in.

i dont know why this is getting downvoted

Because people think it's a fine default.

Just like I think "User-Agent: curl/7.58.0" is a fine default.

Re: Remove default "terraform" partner_id

#76

Post by calcifer » Tue, Oct 29, 2019, 7:24 PM UTC

kraig wrote: post #73

orvtech wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ...Going forward, we will be building an option to opt out of using this partner ID... One should be opted out by default and the option should be build to opt in.

i dont know why this is getting downvoted

Because defaults matter, very few people opt-in to anything and therefore opt-in metrics are by definition biased and useless.

Re: Remove default "terraform" partner_id

#77

Post by colechristensen » Tue, Oct 29, 2019, 7:29 PM UTC

paulddraper wrote: post #75

kraig wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i dont know why this is getting downvoted

Because people think it's a fine default. Just like I think "User-Agent: curl/7.58.0" is a fine default.

Given the amount of fingerprinting and screwing with the content based on platform, I'd be happy to do away with user-agent completely. I'm tired of websites that are completely broken on mobile and force you to use the app (or constantly remind you about their app) and everybody returning a globally unique identification which is so hard to scrub.

Re: Remove default "terraform" partner_id

#78

Post by oh_sigh » Tue, Oct 29, 2019, 8:13 PM UTC

orvtech wrote: post #67

mitchellh wrote: post #55

Hi everyone, I'm the founder of HashiCorp. I want to make something clear up front that this does NOT allow us to see resource usage by Terraform user and does NOT result in credits or revenue sharing at all. HashiCorp has no direct access to this information in any form. Before explaining "why" we do this, I do want to apologize and say that adding this without proper explanation was a mistake. It isn't clear why it…

> ...Going forward, we will be building an option to opt out of using this partner ID... One should be opted out by default and the option should be build to opt in.

Most people wouldn't care about it's usage and will keep it as the default.

Re: Remove default "terraform" partner_id

#79

Post by pbhjpbhj » Tue, Oct 29, 2019, 10:01 PM UTC

alrs wrote: post #36

diminoten wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

File? No. Get worked/dealt with at all? Yeah. Developers can't feed their children with good vibes.

Pay-to-file is fine, if that's what the authors want.

It seems pretty contrary to the spirit of OSS (shared improvement, for example), so I wouldn't call it "fine". "Within the authors available options", maybe.

Like -- and pardon my crudity -- you could throw a free party, then poo on the floor, totally allowed but perhaps not within the spirit of parties.

Re: Remove default "terraform" partner_id

#80

Post by skywhopper » Tue, Oct 29, 2019, 11:14 PM UTC

orvtech wrote: post #67

mitchellh wrote: post #55

Hi everyone, I'm the founder of HashiCorp. I want to make something clear up front that this does NOT allow us to see resource usage by Terraform user and does NOT result in credits or revenue sharing at all. HashiCorp has no direct access to this information in any form. Before explaining "why" we do this, I do want to apologize and say that adding this without proper explanation was a mistake. It isn't clear why it…

> ...Going forward, we will be building an option to opt out of using this partner ID... One should be opted out by default and the option should be build to opt in.

Based on the explanation given, there's absolutely no privacy benefit to not including this code. The fact that it's Terraform doing the work is already being sent via the User Agent in the API requests. The fact that it's _you_ who is making the API calls is also embedded in the request. This amounts to a minor hack of Azure's API logging to enable slightly more convenient reporting. It sends no new data. In other words "opting in" or "opting out" has zero impact on whatever privacy implications you are worried about. This comes down to a simple misunderstanding of what's going on.