That implies it could just be a simple request, not a subpoena or warrant, and implies they have no interest in fighting a subpoena and will just roll over your data. Of course they can give it to law enforcement if ordered to, but this wording didn't say anything like "in conjunction with a government order".
#OPEN SOURCE AUDIO AUDACITY HAS BECOME FREE#
(Google is actually a pretty strong supporter of free software, btw, but they have so many users that any small abuse of data is huge, so their potential for abuse is huge)īut this really drew attention to the privacy policy, which had a stipulation of "we can give your data to law enforcement". They reversed that decision due to public outcry. This would take a lot of burden off their updates, but that meant google ended up with your data (basic OS/IP/version info/ and probably some identifying data) instead of it being kept in-house, now covered by google's separate privacy policy. My initial reading was that they originally were using tools created by google to do the updates. This feature will require your IP address and info about your OS and CPU to be sent to Audacity. You touched on the main point of the privacy policy, but I want to followup on this part:Īudacity is introducing a (much-requested) feature which allows for automatic updates. Just know that no, it's not spyware and yes, it's as safe to use as basically any other program that connects to the Internet. It's really up to you whether or not you want to keep using Audacity. However, it's not a bad thing if you don't care about that part.
#OPEN SOURCE AUDIO AUDACITY HAS BECOME SOFTWARE#
Plus, Muse Group has been sort of shitty to the people who have spent years making this software for free. That doesn't sound unreasonable, but why the fuck should I trust Muse Group about anything? Then again, I definitely know I shouldn't trust Reddit or Google, so. In that Github thread I linked, a Muse Group employee mentioned that they use the data to get anonymous statistics about where the software is used and on what OS. Furthermore, Muse Group certainly benefit from whatever information they collect. Anonymized data is rarely as anonymous as we assume it is. They already did a few other things to piss off the Audacity community (along with the one for MuseScore, which is another open-source project they acquired) so you can imagine how pissed some people were when they saw the original, poorly written policy, and how skeptical they were when they read Audacity's clarification of the policy. They fucked up by wording it very poorly and more generally fucked up by being a company who doesn't seem to understand open-source projects and how the surrounding communities think. They need to do this because different countries/regions have different laws about what is considered personal information, how it can be collected, how long it can be stored, etc. What really set off this whole shit storm, though, is that Audacity published a privacy policy, which is something that most internet-connected software has. This means that, by default, your IP address and OS/CPU info will periodically be sent to Audacity. There's an option to turn off automatic updates, but it's turned on by default. Some people think that this is totally fine, other people think it's unnecessary. However, common does not necessarily mean good. This is a common thing to require for such a feature. Audacity is introducing a (much-requested) feature which allows for automatic updates. Reddit is much closer to spyware than Audacity.
Audacity won't be sending your audio files to the Russian government. Also, I'm getting most of my information from here: Īudacity is not spyware. I also don't like this change, nor do I like Muse Group, who are the company that "owns" Audacity. To be clear, I am not a contributor to the Audacity project. There's a lot of confusion and misinformation going around, especially with people who are unfamiliar with the project and software development in general.
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