this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2023
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the proposal is from a red-hat team member and is proposing addition of "privacy-respecting" telemetry. here's the link to the hyperkitty thread

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[–] ono@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)

The problem with opt-in telemetry is that it messes with the scope of the research.

Too bad. That does not make it okay to collect data without consent.

Not ever.

In other words, unbiased telemetry is not possible to do ethically. (Or to say it differently, ethical telemetry necessarily has bias.)

[–] joojmachine@lemmy.ml -3 points 1 year ago (6 children)

And once again, it isn't "without consent", it just means that the default state of the checkbox is on. Users will still be presented with a confirm option before any data is sent.

In other words, unbiased telemetry is not possible to do ethically.

Say that to the opentelemetry and Plausible folks, who have been on the vanguard of doing exactly that for years now.

[–] ono@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago (4 children)

the default state of the checkbox is on.

That's a very strange thing to mistake for consent.

[–] joojmachine@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's not mistaken for context, you're just missing the point. The switch is just part of it, the user would still have to consent to send their data before it is sent and the proposal proposes to have it detailing the data that is going to be sent and explaining the process.

Having it as a default guarantees it doesn't scare non-power users away from it. It's not about just having people clicking next and accepting it without consent.

[–] SymbolicLink@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Disagree, no matter the level of detail, having "yes" automatically selected is an assumption. What purpose would it have other than hoping people will just select the defaults and ignore it?

Having it as a default guarantees it doesn’t scare non-power users away from it. It’s not about just having people clicking next and accepting it without consent.

Scare away from what? Data collection? I mean even in that wording you are saying there is something to be scared of. It should be up the user. If you are saying "non-power users won't fully understand what is being collected and might get scared away if it isn't the default option" then that is even worse TBH. Preying on people not fully understanding what's going on.

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