As I see more applications try and hit remote ad servers, I feel even better that I'm blocking all of these ad servers with my /etc/hosts file using https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts. The update will be a no-op from my machine.
Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics
91–100 of 329 posts
Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
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).
Google does not use GA data unless the webmaster chooses to share it with them.
I'm not sure if they use it to improve their ad products, but I wouldn't be surprised if the answer is no.
Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics
#93Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics
#94Earlier 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.
Does Homebrew's UUID linked with the user's Google Analytics ID in their browser cookies?
It certainly appears not. They're using curl and reporting a UID they generate.
A Homebrew analytics user ID e.g. 1BAB65CC-FE7F-4D8C-AB45-B7DB5A6BA9CB. This
is generated by uuidgen and stored in ~/.homebrew_analytics_user_uuid. This
does not allow us to track individual users but does enable us to accurately
measure user counts vs. event counts
Of course, you have to trust homebrew, but hell, you're already running their software, so it's a little late.
Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics
#95The 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.
Then don't use their product if you're going to whine so much.
Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics
#96Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics
#97Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm always amused by the way some people try to extend the definition of malware beyond its scope. This isn't malware. It's just anonymous usage tracking. If you don't like it you can turn it off. I hope you don't use a smartphone because the amount of intrinsic "malware" you must be subjected to must be unbearable. "Malware" is an umbrella term used to refer to a variety of forms of hostile or intrusive software, in…
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.
Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics
#99Earlier 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?
We don’t have the resources for this. If you have any suggestion for a service that doesn’t require us time to manage we’d be very grateful. Homebrew have a dozen maintainers for >30 PRs & issues per day plus maintaining our own CI infrastructure plus normal development; and all of this is on our spare time.
Re: Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics
#100Yet 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/
Remember when everyone switched to Homebrew because Fink/macports were "antiquated", a.k.a. not written in Ruby? It was nice back then. Packages didn't install themselves in /usr/local.
I left MacPorts because the political infighting between package maintainers often left ports hopelessly out of date.