[kwlug-disc] Changes to Audacity privacy notice

[Mikalai Birukou]

> The "concerning part" in question very much reads like standard 
> catch-all disclaimer, which would initially mean it is just there to 
> save their butts in case of the outlying case.

While in Kitchener, that is in new Berlin :) , word "Bundestrojaner" 
comes to mind. Let's recoup:

- yearly 2010's, CCC catches German government spreading this malware, 
e.g. https://www.theregister.com/2011/10/12/bundestrojaner/

- 2012, government says to back off, 
https://www.zdnet.com/article/germany-backs-away-from-using-a-trojan-on-its-citizens-for-now/

- from 2018, still in courts? 
https://www.avira.com/en/blog/germany-constitutional-complaint-against-federal-trojan

- 2021, trying to legalize indiscriminate usage, 
https://proprivacy.com/privacy-news/german-government-plans-to-infect-citizens-with-state-trojans


I had classes in translation at my high school. Let me try to put 
"Bundestrojaner" into English: access capability. This word combination 
deserves a direct correlation. It has been used in infamous Australian 
Act, in UK IP Act. I loose count after two :) .


> However, this got me thinking about what kind of information a 
> government entity would possibly ask Audacity to collect for them?  
> And that really gets terrifying quickly. Could the government demand 
> that audacity record an "audio fingerprint" of any Audacity project a 
> user creates that could help identify the creator of a piece of media 
> considered unfavourable to the government?  And whose government?  Add 
> to that the possibility of courts subpoenaing this info for copyright 
> related lawsuits and this spirals downward very quickly.

I read this, and it amazes me that these considerations haven't come to 
my mind. Of course, there are so many ways to harm a human. In academic 
speak, there are so many threat models. Wow.


> I never used to be the kind of person who worried about this kind of 
> thing.  Then the government of my country started to terrify me with 
> their actions.  And I don't even live in one of the scary countries

I've migrated to Western freer world, I've ran from non-free. For what 
its worth, let me spell the following with my own tears, blood, horror: 
we, you and me, have nowhere else to run. That's it folks. We take it 
on, cause you can run to America, but there is already nowhere else to 
run from it. Its a small round globe.


>     > Looks like Audacity project changed hands a few months ago, and
>     has now
>     > released an updated privacy notice, indicating that they collect
>
>     Ars Technica just published an article on this subject:
>
>     https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/07/no-open-source-audacity-audio-editor-is-not-spyware/
>     <https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/07/no-open-source-audacity-audio-editor-is-not-spyware/>
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://kwlug.org/pipermail/kwlug-disc_kwlug.org/attachments/20210706/e4a286ff/attachment.htm>