Suggestion to add telemetry in Audacity GitHub page meets huge backlash

[dbx10]

A GitHub user not working on Audacity suggested via a pull request thar adding "basic telemetry" for user experience improvement should be added. There is no article and this is a developing story still.

 

As of today the feedback on the pull request page from users and developers is overwhelmingly negative.

 

Quote

This request provides the basic telemetry for Audacity.

 

To implement the network layer libcurl is used to avoid issues with the built-in networking of the wxWidgets.

 

Universal Google Analytics is used to track the following events:

 

• Session start and end
• Errors, including errors from the sqlite3 engine, as we need to debug corruption issues reported on the Audacity forum
• Usage of effects, sound generators, analysis tools, so we can prioritize future improvements.
• Usage of file formats for import and export
• OS and Audacity versions
• To identify sessions we use a UUID, which is generated and stored on the client machine.

 

We use Yandex Metrica to be able to correctly estimate the daily active users correctly. We have to use the second service as Google Analytics is known to have some really tight quotas.

 

Both services also record the IP the request is coming from.

 

Telemetry collection is optional and configurable at any time. In case of data sharing is disabled - all calls to the telemetry Report* functions are no-op.

 

Additionally, this pull request comes with a set of libraries to help the future efforts on Audacity.

And one of the standout replies: 

Quote

No. Remove entirely. Shouldn't even be opt-in. 100% using a fork without this from now on if this malware is merged.

 

My thoughts: The addition of telemetry, even with an opt-out, to audacity goes against the idea of free software. People are panic-forking the project already, and for good reason.

 

What makes this suspicious is that a user is creating a pull request suggesting telemetry be sent to a Yandex or Google services endpoint. This user has no prior involvement in Audacity, and unclear interests and motives in regards to the Audacity project.

 

https://github.com/audacity/audacity/pull/835

Edited May 7, 2021 by dbx10
link correction

[Arika]

20 minutes ago, dbx10 said:

A GitHub user not working on Audacity suggested via a pull request thar adding "basic telemetry" for user experience improvement should be added.

21 minutes ago, dbx10 said:

People are panic-forking the project already, and for good reason.

 

so someone not part of audacity made a suggestion and people are freaking the fuck out? Sounds like github to me

[RejZoR]

If they made in-house telemetry, fine. But they want to shove in stupid Google Analytics. So, I'm with the angry mob.

[Kisai]

18 minutes ago, Arika S said:

 

so someone not part of audacity made a suggestion and people are freaking the fuck out? Sounds like github to me

 

The problem , IMO, is that after the "university contributes bugs to linux kernel on purpose" story, is that all open source software now has to vet changes with the idea that not all contributors are contributing patches in good faith.

 

Like there is no reason to have telemetry enabled. In any program. If you're not QA, turn it off and rip it out. #ifdef _DEBUG all that stuff.

 

Yes, sometimes people want to help develop software, but you aren't paying them.

 

As for google or yandex, that's not telemetry, that's not even the developer tracking, that's marketing tracking.

 

[WereCatf]

9 minutes ago, Kisai said:

The problem , IMO, is that after the "university contributes bugs to linux kernel on purpose" story, is that all open source software now has to vet changes with the idea that not all contributors are contributing patches in good faith.

Mmmno. They've always had to vet patches, this is not new in any way. The issue is that universities were expected to be more trustworthy than others and thus patches coming from universities specifically -- not everyone -- were let through with less scrutiny.

12 minutes ago, Kisai said:

Like there is no reason to have telemetry enabled. In any program.

Of course there is. E.g. many UI-design improvements come from telemetry -- knowing what features get used the most, which ones get used the least, how long it takes users to find their way into this or that feature and so on and so forth.

[Kisai]

1 minute ago, WereCatf said:

 

Of course there is. E.g. many UI-design improvements come from telemetry -- knowing what features get used the most, which ones get used the least, how long it takes users to find their way into this or that feature and so on and so forth.

And that's why features get cut, moved and buried.

[WereCatf]

Just now, Kisai said:

And that's why features get cut, moved and buried.

That's projection, not an argument.

[Kisai]

Just now, WereCatf said:

That's projection, not an argument.

Prove to me that some program was improved by having telemetry not going to the developer.

 

Because, all I've seen are features being buried or stripped because "rarely used" becomes a justification to nuke people's workflows.

[WereCatf]

1 minute ago, Kisai said:

Prove to me that some program was improved by having telemetry not going to the developer.

Prove to me that no program ever was improved by telemetry.

[Bombastinator]

How audacious. *runs away and hides*

[Kilrah]

-> Moved to Programs, apps and websites since it doesn't meet TN guidelines.

[dbx10]

On 5/7/2021 at 1:21 AM, WereCatf said:

Prove to me that no program ever was improved by telemetry.

Windows 10.

they fired 5000 QA staff and now you are the QA.

 

Every update breaks something whilst attempting to fix something else. 

 

Also now they have telemetry and might as well use it for ads, right? Oh wait, they already do. In your START MENU of all places.

 

no, this is not okay, and Audacity getting telemetry is why people are forking it before they ruin that too.