| Do anyone that's so much against opt-in is aware of closed source tools that tracks you and use it anyway? And.. Do you use any third party web service like gmail or any other? I can only answer for myself, and it's no to both, with caveats. I do have a hotmail account, but I only use it for subscriptions to public mailing lists. I've had it for over 20 years, and stopped using it for private correspondence around 2005. I also have an Android phone, but it's not activated (as in, I never gave it any credentials to log in to any Google services, and I do not have a mobile data plan). Any application I need is sideloaded, or installed with F-Droid. The rest of my networked machines are running Debian, OpenWRT or NetBSD. I do have a Windows (8.1) VM on my work laptop, but that VM is switched off unless I get paid to use it. It's true it's not directly related to the functioning of the software, but it improves it in anyway, then there's a connection with it. It's not a given to any specific user that sharing their data will improve the software in areas that the user cares about. Nor is it a certainty that not sharing leads to the software not improving in those areas. There definitely is a case to be made that more accurate metrics will allow the developers to make more focused decisions, and I don't think anyone is arguing against that. That's not what the argument is about. The question is whether the developers' need for data is sufficient justification to hand over their users' data to the biggest aggregator of personal data on the planet, and whether it is justifiable to do so without the user's knowledge (the primary reason for opt-in is because it's the easiest way to unambiguously ascertain consent). |