26 Mar
2009
26 Mar
'09
9:15 a.m.
Hi Vincent,
On 25 mars 09, at 16:08, Vincent Massol wrote:
Just to be sure, the GUID would not allow to link any
data back to you
of course, it's just an id that is the same across pings. We should
make sure of that. Then the idea is not to send any data at all, only
to know that a given instance is alive (for that we need to know that
2 pings are coming from the same XE install).
Yes, I have understand that but even without personal information,
generating unique ID could be considered spyware. Do you remember the
reaction when Intel has introduce a GUID in their processor ?
Probably many people will not care and never noticed, but do you want
to take the risk that one be shocked and start an internet compain
saying you are developing spyware ?
For myself, I would not, and I feel that privacy is a growing concern
these days.
The problem is that adding a screen with
disclaimer/etc is more
complex and would require more time. We would actually need the
installation wizard which is not there yet. I think it's a good idea
to do so but in this case, as you say we would probably gather more
data. Right now the need is very simple: just to know how many XE
installs are active.
As I have said, ensuring that some page trigger a RSS request to your
site will probably not raise the same issue, and collecting data from
web server logs is commonly accepted. I feel that with some clever
algorithm, you may be able to derive some significant information. I
hopefully, we can imagine that the wizard will be ready when more
precise statistics will be needed.
The GUI could be a random number generated once and
stored in the
database.
This precisely what I dislike in this idea.
Do you consider that to be spying if there's no
way to link that
simple information to you?
Definitely, yes this is spyware practice. It is exactly the same as
leaving a cookie.
Denis