Smolt: firsboot revisited

[Jack Spaar]

On Thu, 15 Feb 2007 19:29:53 +0530, Rahul Sundaram wrote:

> Simo Sorce wrote:
> 
>> This is as much, or more, a PR issue, not just a legal issue.
> 
> It was expressed as a legal issue.
> [rest of comments snipped...]

Since it is both legal and PR, maybe smolt could publish a
specific privacy policy under which the data would be collected and used.
That should stand to answer questions and guide any future code changes.

I'm concerned about privacy issues more than most, and I've looked at
smolt and read what Mike has said publicly.  I for one am satisfied that
the approach taken serves a useful purpose while doing a decent job of
protecting privacy.  IMHO, the only thing missing is an actual
published policy which expresses formally what Mike has already said.

[From what I understand: it's informed consent, opt-in, with no personally
identifying information sent, and nothing is ever sent without the user's
permission.  It *does* store a randomly-generated GUID cookie on your
drive which is transmitted as part of the profile upon installation or
whenever smolt is run manually by the user.  IP addresses are never
retained, MAC addresses, Serial Numbers, or other UIDs are never sent.]


--Jack Spaar