Posted by
Gabriel Landini on
URL: http://imagej.273.s1.nabble.com/ImageJ-2-0-0-rc-11-released-tp5009074p5009100.html
On Monday 11 Aug 2014 09:11:37 Mark Hiner wrote:
> I wrote:
> >I think the collection of usage data should be made an OPT IN option and
> > so be set OFF by default.
> This was a tough decision for us. We certainly don't want anyone to feel
> uncomfortable using ImageJ.
Good, so please use this as an opportunity to change the way the program gets
user permission to do it.
If this happens to be something people want to adhere to, then there is
nothing to worry about as there will be lots of users opting in when given the
chance. But at the moment this is essentially forcing everybody to tell what
they are doing with IJ in their machines without asking.
> But we are committed to keeping these statistics anonymous, and this
> is extremely important information for an open source project.
> This data will certainly be used to strengthen future
> funding requests to continue the support of Fiji/ImageJ and its
> collaborations.
Logging updates and downloads is one thing that could be quoted when applying
for funding (after all you need to contact the server to do that), but logging
plugin usage statistics in individual computers (i.e. what you do with the
software?) without user agreeing seems intrusive and over the top.
> So we decided to make it opt out to get as realistic a view of usage as we
> can, while still allowing anyone who is uncomfortable to disable this
> functionality.
SCIFIO was opt in, but usage tracking is opt out? It does not make sense.
Given privacy (or the lack of...) is such a hot topic at the moment it would
seem appropriate to do things right.
Regards
Gabriel
PS: Incidentally I also found that there seems to be no way of recording in
the macro language the Privacy Opt Out option. Can this be added too so it can
be included in the StartupMacros file? That way I can have the same setup
everywhere by transferring that file. Thanks.
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