The right way to implement telemetry:
- It’s off by default (opt-in). To increase visibility of this option, it’s OK to ask the user via popup, during setup, or similar, whether he would like to turn it on
- Once it’s on, the user should be informed BEFORE each upload takes place about the exact content which should be uploaded, and asked whether he wants to send it (Y/N)
- Transmission must only contain truly necessary data
- Transmission must be encrypted
I agree with everything, except the second point. If I already opted-in I don’t want to be prompted every time that telemetry is uploaded. I wouldn’t mind a notification informing me that telemetry has been sent while also allowing me to review it.
Also, it almost goes without saying that I should also be able to opt-out at any time, even after explicitly opting-in.
What’s happening? Out of the loop. Is Fedora going to implement telemetry? Escaping from windows only to go with red hat
Not just talk about implementing it, but also making it opt-out (i.e. enabled by default). If I understood it right, the author of the proposal even writes that that opt-in is useless, because nobody is going to enable it, which kinda makes it sound like they know that they’re trying to push something on users that they don’t want.
If I understood it right, the author of the proposal even writes that that opt-in is useless, because nobody is going to enable it, which kinda makes it sound like they know that they’re trying to push something on users that they don’t want.
The question is, why don’t users want it? I have already had a few discussions on the subject of telemetry and telemetry has almost always been portrayed as evil. Even when, for example, the transmission is encrypted and only the most necessary data is transmitted in such a way that no conclusion can be drawn about a specific user.
Is opt-out therefore a good solution? Not in my opinion. But I can understand the developers who use opt-out, for the reasons I mentioned. Because yes, telemetry can help to improve a program.
Personally I don’t like companies tracking what I do constantly. If I had the possibility, I wouldn’t allow my credit card issuer to profile me based on my purchases. I’m using “deGoogled” Android to limit Google’s ability to monitor what I do on my phone, and I use both ad block and privacy badger in my web browser. I’m not saying what Fedora/Red Hat is considering is the same as what Google, Facebook, etc are doing, but in general, I’m against being tracked and monitored.
Now one might argue that software telemetry is much more benign, that they’re only collecting data about their software and not about me. The thing is that I don’t trust businesses to actually care about me, the end user, and I assume they’re going to fuck me over the second it becomes the more profitable option for them. I could spend time and energy to read up on what data they collect from my computer, but that sounds kinda tedious and boring so it’s not like I want to. And even if they completely anonymize the data now, I’m not confident that I would notice if they changed their ToS to allow them to collect more data and sell it to third parties at some point in the future. It’s just so much more convenient for me if there is no telemetry to begin with.
But I can definitely see why company collecting data would prefer opt-out.
Currently the nays have it at 2/3 of the vote, but there’s only 15 votes. Only time will tell how it turns out.
Corpos love opt-out because it lets them take advantage of people who don’t consent but maybe weren’t paying attention to or understanding the option right at the moment, esp if deceptive design is used.
Edit: and judging by the stupid formatting of that poll, I don’t think I trust them not to use deceptive design to confuse people lmao.
Am I the only one who had to re-read the poll question multiples times because of the confusing Yes/No options? Why not make the options Opt-In by Default/Opt-Out by Default?
