this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2023
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https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/straw-poll-on-your-preferences-about-opt-in-opt-out-for-possible-data-collection/85675/2

This poll is a bit hard to understand but essentially you could vote for multiple options, the highest opt-out option is at 26%, meaning 74% of people oppose this idea.

The original proposal is at 16%, for a jarring 84% disapproval rate.

Despite overwhelming negative feedback, Red Hat is currently drafting a revised proposal.

But what about Red Hat?

This is the link to the proposal: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/Telemetry#Privacy-preserving_Telemetry_for_Fedora_Workstation

These parts are all interesting and contradict some people who argue Red Hat has no hand in this issue:

Name: Michael Catanzaro Email: <mcatanzaro@redhat.com>

and

The Red Hat Display Systems Team (which develops the desktop) proposes to enable limited data collection of anonymous Fedora Workstation usage metrics.

and

It is Fedora Legal's obligation to ensure our data collection complies with legal requirements in the jurisdictions in which Red Hat operates

and

Occasionally, Red Hat might need to collect specific metrics to justify additional time spent on contributing to Fedora or additional investment in Fedora.

The quotes above were handpicked. There are 7 matches for "Red Hat" in the link above, not counting the email address.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago

I don't buy this excuse. Just make it "opt", meaning neither option is the default. You have to choose "Yes, contribute diagnostic and bug data to Fedora (recommended)" or "No, keep my data private" before you can continue. Put a big "more info" link to documentation on what is collected, when, and who gets it, and how it's used.

It somewhat under-represents those who value privacy most and over-represents those who want to help Fedora with their usage data, but I argue that's a good thing.