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Re: Privacy policy of packages/softwares installed in Debian

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On Mon, Jun 10, 2019 at 12:08:04AM -0700, npdflr wrote:
> Thanks Jean for your reply.
> 
> Non-free packages should definitely be checked with their privacy policy. But what about free packages?

Agreed.

> The license for the Go programming language is https://golang.org/LICENSE which is free but the privacy policy is invasive https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en

This is, at least, debatable. Go deems itself independent from Google
(formally it is; whether it is "de facto" is a much more difficult
question).

> Would you say that all free packages via main repositories and via other ways (after checking their license to be DFSG-compliant) can be safely be allowed to connect to the internet?

This is a very good question, and I think there's no clear-cut
answer to it. When Debian and its Social Contract [0] were conceived,
the focus was more on giving end users power through free software.

Nowadays free software has "won" (of sorts), but the lines of
conflict have shifted to a more subtle "place". Most of the software
a Facebook user is in contact with is somehow "free". Heck, FB is
one important contributor to the Linux kernel. But... would you say
a FB user controls his/her use of FB? Tough call.

To illustrate the point you made a bit better, I've seen Google
beacons embedded in the Javascript included in free packages[1].

Free but... privacy respecting? Up to debate.

You can help making Debian better by trying to find such things
and reporting them as bugs. I think most Debian maintainers would
agree that those go against the spirit of the Social Contract [0].

Cheers
[0] https://www.debian.org/social_contract

[1] In one case, a web app testing package, there was even a
   comment in there "please, leave this in, since that's how
   we make money", so the inclusion was not an accident. In
   the other case, it was in a Debian package -- this one has
   disappeared since, otherwise I'd have filed a bug report.

-- tomás

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Privacy policy of packages/softwares installed in Debian npdflr <npdflr@zoho.com> - 2019-06-08 20:10 +0200
  Re: Privacy policy of packages/softwares installed in Debian Jean-Philippe MENGUAL <jpmengual@debian.org> - 2019-06-09 14:50 +0200
    Re: Privacy policy of packages/softwares installed in Debian npdflr <npdflr@zoho.com> - 2019-06-10 09:30 +0200
      Re: Privacy policy of packages/softwares installed in Debian <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2019-06-10 10:20 +0200
        Re: Privacy policy of packages/softwares installed in Debian Gene Heskett <gheskett@shentel.net> - 2019-06-10 12:50 +0200
          Re: Privacy policy of packages/softwares installed in Debian <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2019-06-10 17:20 +0200
            Re: Privacy policy of packages/softwares installed in Debian Gene Heskett <gheskett@shentel.net> - 2019-06-10 18:30 +0200
              Re: Privacy policy of packages/softwares installed in Debian John Hasler <jhasler@newsguy.com> - 2019-06-10 19:10 +0200
                Re: Privacy policy of packages/softwares installed in Debian Greg Wooledge <wooledg@eeg.ccf.org> - 2019-06-10 19:40 +0200
                Re: Privacy policy of packages/softwares installed in Debian npdflr <npdflr@zoho.com> - 2019-06-14 08:30 +0200
                Re: Privacy policy of packages/softwares installed in Debian npdflr <npdflr@zoho.com> - 2019-06-23 11:10 +0200
                Re: Privacy policy of packages/softwares installed in Debian Gene Heskett <gheskett@shentel.net> - 2019-06-10 19:40 +0200
      Re: Privacy policy of packages/softwares installed in Debian Jean-Philippe MENGUAL <jpmengual@debian.org> - 2019-06-10 13:20 +0200

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