Is telemetry evil? Are guns evil? Philosophical questions?
I find it objectionable when people gather "telemetry" about "me" and not just the causes of the "blue screens of death". I find it objectionable when people gather personal "telemetry" and then on sell that information to others for whatever purposes, whether it is to target me with ads, or political analysts like Cambridge Analytica, or to alter my "Social Credit Score", or to be used to cancel my Credit Cards, or for whatever other purpose. While collecting information about individuals and selling their data is common practice these days, I object. I cannot stop it, but I can at least use systems that gather such data as minimally as possible. Hopefully by using Linux for 99% of my computing experience, I am giving Google and Windows less data. Of course, by the mere fact of visiting a web site (for example, that has Google Analytics installed), and by writing emails like this that well be scanned, and then this data will be added to my profile by any companies collecting data to gain some view of me, which they will then sell to political groups, marketers, etc. Scott McNally’s quip that ‘you have no privacy, get over it’ is sadly true, but I don't think he meant that we have to resign ourselves to this fast, we can but do what we can to reduce the data collected, even while realising our efforts are mostly in vain. https://lockstep.com.au/library/quotes/ Privacy is an interesting topic. What has privacy to do with a Debian User email list? Well I am hoping by using Debian less of my data ends up in large tech company hands. At least let me dream that it does. I encourage others to use Debian, if by doing so will let them sleep better at night, even if it is in ignorance. George. On Tuesday, 02-07-2024 at 13:40 Stefan Monnier wrote: > In the more general case, telemetry is not in itself > considered 'evil'. I consider it evil if it's opt-out rather than opt-in. Stefan
