To those who use or plan to use audacity:
It is now effectively spyware.
It has been acquired by Muse Group.
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I think this is much ado about nothing. The guy tantacrul is a good open source UI/UX designer guy who fixed up MuseScore has been invited to do the same for Audacity (which it really needs). Part of improving software is telemetry, so you can have a better idea of how people are using it, and part of collecting data means you’re subject to records request laws.
This is really common and really not nefarious at all, I don’t know why this one is getting so much attention. I guarantee any piece of browser software you’re posting from has the same conditions.
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Not sure “everyone else does it” is that great of an argument, though. Especially if there’s no way to opt out.
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Posting here just for information. People can do with it what they will.
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It’s open source software. The only conditions any distributor can put on people who use the code is that imposed by the licence itself. This is the GPLv2, so how exactly Muse is going to stop people just compiling the code without the problematic parts and distributing the clean binaries remains unclear. Maybe I’m missing something crucial but that’s how the GPL works.
A fork is reportedly under discussion.
The Audacity privacy policy appears similar to that of MuseScore. (The MuseScore privacy policy covers also their sheet music sharing site and forums so includes a good deal of verbiage applicable only to those, not present in the Audacity privacy policy.) I’ve used the MuseScore application for years — it is, to my mind, not only the best music notation software out there but also one of the best open source applications of any kind I’ve seen — and I have no evidence they’ve ever done anything nefarious with my personal data. I’d be happier if they didn’t have any of my personal data but unfortunately that isn’t how the world works generally.
Actually, I don’t see a huge amount of difference between the Audacity privacy policy and that of a certain website I use: Privacy - Look Mum No Computer Thingies
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Audacity isn’t a website, it’s a program you install and run on hardware you own. Any logging of what you’re doing on your computer to US or Russian megacorps or anyone else is intentional monitoring, not a side-effect of your browser talking to the website servers (there’s a lot of work going on in that area to reduce fingerprints, btw).
Seems they dropped their more extensive telemetry plans, though, and decided to self-host in EU (under the GDPR). And it is opt-in.
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That this sort of thing is needed for a website and not for a desktop application is true, but beside my point which is that we all are voluntarily allowing similar data collection when we use this site to complain about data collection.
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