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by sneak 1217 days ago
Errors are the property of the user on the system in which they occurred. Exfiltrating them without consent is unethical and oftentimes illegal, and leaks the user's IP to Google. Homebrew has no claim to them without the consent of the user. It's simple spyware.

Unless you report with Tor, it's not without PII. (Homebrew also includes a unique install UUID supercookie which persists, so every analytics data point includes PII in addition to IP address which allows Google to track that user's physical travel history.)
1 comments
therealdrag0 1217 days ago
> consent

Users are informed upon installation.

> IP to Google.

Lots of people seem to care. I haven't heard a reason why though.

But regardless, Homebrew is deprecating and nuking the google system, so that's nice.

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sneak 1216 days ago
Consent doesn't work that way. Imagine posting a sign at the entrance to your house saying "all those who enter here consent to being groped".

Notice is not consent. Your statement that users are notified is a red herring. Users must also consent, not just be told of an entity's plan to violate/assume consent.

Surveillance without consent is unethical no matter who the data goes to, or whether or not the data is anonymized or otherwise stripped of PII. It's stealing of information unless the user agrees to it in advance.

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