> important enough to ping a server, which (of course!) exposes your IP.

> important enough to ping a server, which (of course!) exposes your IP. It's "of course" for you and me, but not for the vast majority if end users. Also, there's no reason this can't be done anonymously, even as a policy from the vendor that IPs are not logged. > Businesses aren't interested in collecting usage metrics for their software for non-nefarious reasons Absolutely some businesses have good intentions; also some have bad intentions and some have intentions that they think are non-nefarious but about which their customers disagree. A few thoughts: * Many of these businesses are secretive about this behavior; if it's all ok and for the good, what are they hiding? Why don't they announce it to every customer when they start using the product? * The collection of usage metrics goes way beyond what is needed, with many vendors collecting everything they can get their hands on. * The bad actors damage everyone's reputations; consumers have no way to distinguish good guys from bad. If this was properly regulated, consumers might trust everyone more. The good guys should be pushing for regulation. > Businesses shouldn't have a profit motive I don't recall a criticism of profit, but maybe I overlooked it.

Posted by hackuser on Apr 27, 2015, 6:16 PM

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