On Wed, 2006-11-22 at 10:38 -0600, Mike McGrath wrote: > On 11/22/06, Bruno Wolff III <bruno@xxxxxxxx> wrote: > > On Wed, Nov 22, 2006 at 10:06:03 +0000, > > Andy Green <andy@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > > One of the reasons I like free software is that it doesn't (normally) try to > > spy on you. > > > > Currently Fedora is a pretty good fit for me, but if it turns into spyware, > > I will be looking at other options. (Though in the short run I would probably > > look at respinning the install DVD to include modified packages without the > > spyware.) > > > > I think you guys are focusing too much on semantics. You don't seem to be aware that such kind of spy-ware is heavily being fought against in many parts of the world and is a major political and legal topic, there. > Yum, updates, > checking for updates, caching, blah. What we're talking about is a > phone home mechanism that can easily be disabled at install time. > > Would you disable it? Definitely. IMO, it MUST be disabled by default and MUST require manual activation. > What if it only ran once? My first step would be to block it. > What if it anonymously (not secretly) sent a hardware profile that we > could then use to better support your hardware? Inacceptable, if being enabled by default. Also very questionable, legally. Definitely illegal if being combined with personal data. Ralf
