Thank you for your work.
> designed as a local tool
Nod, a local tool. I have various expectations of my local tools. And if I, say, start Zotero in the morning to read a paper, then exit it for a meeting, then return to it afterward, and then exit for lunch, then at least my own expectations for a local tool are, for example, in tension with those four centralized timestamps. As are the varying tcp routes as I move my laptop among buildings. As is the request when I surf to the NYTimes during lunch.
So what does privacy best practice look like? One comment here suggests the ability to fork and edit the code. Another notes the linked documentation, and being more ethical than Elsevier. The linked page notes the existence of scattered opt-out options. And also "You can avoid these requests by keeping Zotero open while you browse the web."
My own understanding of privacy best practices, includes data exposure being opt-in rather than opt-out, and those privacy preferences being easily seen and changed in one place. My impression is Zotero doesn't do these.
And that's just Microsoft-style privacy practice. It would be even nicer to have knobs, like "check for updates every ".
> Criticizing Zotero for privacy, of all things, is a bit bizarre.
I'd be fine with "we have limited resources; know privacy is important; are improving; know we have work to do to implement best practices, are working towards it".
But my own fuzzy long-term impression has been, that such recognition has not been proportional to the potential degree of privacy exposure.