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[Monotone-devel] Re: [RFC] M.T. phone home


From: Graydon Hoare
Subject: [Monotone-devel] Re: [RFC] M.T. phone home
Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 20:25:57 -0700
User-agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.4 (Windows/20060516)

Nathaniel Smith wrote:

We all definitely agree that (0) is fine, and that (6) is not.
Therefore, we probably each have some first number that we think would
be unacceptable.  When you say "Don't do it", do you mean that for
you, the line of acceptability falls between (0) and (1), (1) is
already too much, or, can you expand on where exactly you think the
line is?

I think that (1) is too far. I'd like to stick to surveys. Maybe surveys plus a line asking for a voluntary dump of "mtn db info" and your --full-version string. Maybe a command like "mtn db profile" that runs a loopback file:// sync with a bunch of internal scoped timers and counters, and some deeper analysis of the db structure.

I have two lines of reasoning here.

First, I fear setting up any sort of subconscious association between our tool and privacy invasion. People believe the first and/or worst rumor they hear. That's not about reasoning, it's about avoiding irrational rumors and reputations.

Second, I think that it would be hard to implement properly:

  - Get the set of data to record just right
  - Get the sending-to-us system just right
  - Get the interacting-with-user system just right

This will distract a lot of attention from other tasks; each of them is a sort of mother-of-all-bikeshed topic.

Don't get me wrong: I'd love to see trustworthy, privacy-blinded, full-system profiling of some sort enabled on computers -- in general -- so that the system-makers could see all the annoyances they unwittingly foist on users. But I don't think we're there yet, and I don't really want our tool going down the road exploring it.

-graydon





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