WordPress and phone home

[Elpie]

Sometimes people only wake up when a breach of privacy bites them on the backside.

Where the problem really lies (in my opinion) is with cultural differences. For those of us who live in countries with strict privacy laws, privacy of personal information is a given. We are used to it and we expect to get it. The US doesn't have very good privacy laws and it may be that US citizens have no real expectation of privacy, so just "don't get it" when these issues are raised.

They could however listen, and treat concerns with respect.

[chipbennett]

Sometimes people only wake up when a breach of privacy bites them on the backside.

Where the problem really lies (in my opinion) is with cultural differences. For those of us who live in countries with strict privacy laws, privacy of personal information is a given. We are used to it and we expect to get it. The US doesn't have very good privacy laws and it may be that US citizens have no real expectation of privacy, so just "don't get it" when these issues are raised.

They could however listen, and treat concerns with respect.

Hear, hear.

On the matter of respect, I find it ironic that "they" have no problem calling others "paranoid" and the "Tin Foil brigade", yet when those who they thus disparage turn around and call them "arrogant" and "condescending", they get all huffy about not throwing around insults.

If you really want to understand such people, read The Vision of the Anointed by Thomas Sowell.

[Elpie]

Seen this? http://wordpress.org/support/topic/339721

All this nastiness is completely unnecessary.

[andreasnrb]

I don't think I was nasty, I talk like that all the time maybe it comes of as nastier in English. The only nasty things I find that I wrote are the Otto comment and "don't give a rats ass". THe ridiculous attempt comment I stand by full heartedly because it was. Personally for me it all started when Otto questioned if I had a brain in this thread. Then he removed all kind of respect I had for his opinions.

[chipbennett]

Seen this? http://wordpress.org/support/topic/339721

All this nastiness is completely unnecessary.

Yes, I had read that earlier.

I found particular irony in this exchange:

You didnt answer the question Otto and I'm not that interested in what you think Otto. I want to know from the people in charge. Those that actually control things.

andreasnrb: Consider this a warning. Stop the personal attacks. The information I posted was factual in nature, you don't have any grounds for making comments about me.


If you do it again, I will take action.

And then the piling on by NetworkGeek and ClaytonJames.

Pardon the language, but there are some real a**holes in the WordPress community.

At least Mark Jaquith made an honest attempt to answer a couple of the questions:

I want to know what they do with the data

We use it to see plugin/theme popularity, track adoption rates of new WP versions, and get a feel for the platforms that people run WP on. For instance, knowing how many people run PHP 4 is very helpful in deciding whether or not to drop support for it.

why they refuse to make it non identifiable.

A URL is a standardized, globally unique, verifiable identifier for a WordPress site. It is not disclosed, per the privacy policy. Indeed, our tool for viewing this statistical data has only numbers and percentages — for instance, the number of people running MySQL 4 vs MySQL 5, or the number of active installs of a particular plugin. We don't have a "see what site X is running" tool. The purpose is to make better decisions about WordPress development by looking at the aggregate data.


If you're uncomfortable with this, there are plugins available to obfuscate the URL you send (though obviously it cannot obfuscate the IP address your server sends, unless you're willing to turn off update notifications altogether).

Of course, one thing we get here is the admission that sending the blog URL is done solely for use as a unique identifier of WordPress installation information (ostensibly, because using it is convenient).

As has been said, a hashed URL or a wp-config key would work equally well.

(The argument that a hash wouldn't work because it changes if capitalization or a trailing-slash changes is specious. Who changes such things regularly in their blog settings? And even if someone does change the setting, the impact of that change on the aggregate data would be statistically insignificant. The concern represents an extremely minor edge case, at best.)

As for the comment about not having a "see what site X is running tool" - they absolutely do have such a tool: the database itself, conveniently keyed by blog URL. Anyone with access to that database could find the http://www.chipbennett.net/ entry, and would then see exactly what plugins I have installed/active.

(And before anyone calls me paranoid: I don't particularly care that they can find/see that information. I'd have no qualms listing my installed/active plugins right here. It is the principle that matters.)

[chipbennett]

I don't think I was nasty, I talk like that all the time maybe it comes of as nastier in English. The only nasty things I find that I wrote are the Otto comment and "don't give a rats ass". THe ridiculous attempt comment I stand by full heartedly because it was. Personally for me it all started when Otto questioned if I had a brain in this thread. Then he removed all kind of respect I had for his opinions.

I think she was talking about the nastiness directed at you.

I'm refraining from commenting in that thread, because I don't think I could say anything in a constructive manner, in response to the way some of those commenters have disrespected you.

[andreasnrb]

ChipBennet on the otto taking action
He probably refers to in part on my comment on keylans remark that he was active in the wp hackers thread "I know he is. But he never reads what people actually write. He has his view and everyone else is wrong.". I'm referring in part to his exchange with me here. Which led to the whole question of my brains existence. Personally that is my observation of his behavior wouldnt call it an attack though. It was stupid thing to bring up but at the time and due to the late hour I failed to recognise it.

[Elpie]

I don't think I was nasty, I talk like that all the time maybe it comes of as nastier in English. The only nasty things I find that I wrote are the Otto comment and "don't give a rats ass". THe ridiculous attempt comment I stand by full heartedly because it was. Personally for me it all started when Otto questioned if I had a brain in this thread. Then he removed all kind of respect I had for his opinions.

It was the personal attacks ON you I was referring to

[andreasnrb]

Hehe good good. I just wanted to make sure so I don't have some bad behavior I need to fix.

[chipbennett]

ChipBennet on the otto taking action
He probably refers to in part on my comment on keylans remark that he was active in the wp hackers thread "I know he is. But he never reads what people actually write. He has his view and everyone else is wrong.". I'm referring in part to his exchange with me here. Which led to the whole question of my brains existence. Personally that is my observation of his behavior wouldnt call it an attack though. It was stupid thing to bring up but at the time and due to the late hour I failed to recognise it.

Oh, I just think his response to you was ironic (and even hypocritical) given his admittedly unfiltered responses here at WPTavern.