On Fri, 2007-02-16 at 04:35 +0000, Arthur Pemberton wrote: > On 2/16/07, Ralf Corsepius <rc040203@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > On Fri, 2007-02-16 at 02:46 +0000, Arthur Pemberton wrote: > > > On 2/16/07, Ralf Corsepius <rc040203@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > > On Fri, 2007-02-16 at 02:19 +0000, Arthur Pemberton wrote: > > > > > On 2/16/07, Ralf Corsepius <rc040203@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > > > > On Thu, 2007-02-15 at 02:33 -0500, seth vidal wrote: > > > > > > > On Thu, 2007-02-15 at 08:20 +0100, Ralf Corsepius wrote: > > > > > > > > > I don't think you've ever said how the information is being sent > > > > > without user permission or what the personal data is that is being > > > > > sent. > > > > The smolt developers would be the ones to reply this. > > > > > > > > AFAIS (I banned smolt from my installations), it transmits > > > > a machine-id, several HW details (CPU brand, type, peripherials, > > > > bogomips) and OS details via http. > > > > > > > > i.e. they have the IP, they have a "machine-id", and they have > > > > information which is not publicly available elsewhere. > > > > > > > > Ralf > > > > > > > > > > Fair enough. However the machine-id cannot legally id your computer, > > > nor is it supposed to be able to. As far as I understand, your > > > machine-id will be specific to Fedora. > > > > > > But considiering you have to TELL IT to transmit thoise things, how > > > can there be any legal problems? > > > > There is one dead-beat argument likely rendering this discussion moot: > > > > Not wrt. smolt, because the server is hosted in a foreign country, > > therefore the data, unless it's contents is lawful, is likely not > > subject to German laws (To be verified by a German lawyer). > > Maybe Fedora needs to simply not run smolt in german countries. You > make it seem as if there is some special, useful data being stored. Absolutely not. I am only commenting from a German perspective, because I am living in Germany, because I am familiar with the situation around here. I am pretty sure, what I said applies to many other countries as well. > The data is only interesting from a statistical point of view, and to > a limited audience. For YOU, but ... the fact "$big business" is running 42 Fedora 6 machines with 9 of them being equipped with a topsecret "IBMINTAMD" processor at 50 GHz in their development departments might be a business secret. > > > Or are you saying it is illegal to > > > ask someone to fillout a survey form , > > No, it is not, but (at least some) Germans probably will be very > > reluctant to fill out such forms and be very careful about what they > > fill out. > > Okay. So what's the differene bween not filling out the form and not > running smolt? What is the difference between not installing smolt and having to fill out a form? Basically: security, less exposure to risks. > > > where they can simply ignore, > > > in your country? > > Common practice on "statistical survey forms" is them to carry an > > explicit "data-privacy disclaimer", which people explicitly have to > > check (== opt-in), which details what the data is being used for, to > > whom it will be passed on and when it will be deleted. > > There is no fundamental difference between smolt and a survey form - > down to to the fac that machine readable survey forms do have id > numbers (in this case the machine id - may be it should be called the > smolt id since there is no such thing as a machine id, yet at least) German laws probably would mandate to keep the machine id separate from the IP or not to record the IP at all. Ralf -- fedora-devel-list mailing list fedora-devel-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-devel-list
