Audacity is now a Possible Spyware, Remove it ASAP | Hacker News Reader

Audacity is now a Possible Spyware, Remove it ASAP

fosspost.org

32 pointsbklaasen14 comments

I note the URL slug is "audacity-is-now-a-spyware" - I wonder if they added the the "Possible" bit to protect themselves from legal action? From reading the article it seems clear that Audacity would tick the boxes required to be classified as spyware. And Audacity aren't even trying to hide it: https://www.audacityteam.org/about/desktop-privacy-notice/

There's more in this Github thread: https://github.com/audacity/audacity/issues/1213

Forking it to remove these would be audacious. Seriously though, I’m having thinking of a more awesome name than Audacity.

This thread on their GitHub also caught my attention because it went straight into complaining about Discord: https://github.com/audacity/audacity/issues/1213 I’m not sure how I would handle that if this was my project.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27724389

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27727150

>Remove it ASAP

The perfect way to stop listening to you is to give me orders about what to do...

What about this qualifies it as an "order" (i.e. worthy of taking offense to), as opposed to merely an imperative sentence (e.g. "don't feed dogs chocolate")?

Don't tell me what to feed my dogs!

Well, the dictionary definition of "imperative" is "giving an authoritative command; peremptory."

Does this answer your question?

And does "Remove it ASAP" sound like "Don't feed dogs chocolate" to you?

to me it does yes, or maybe more akin to "remove your hand from the hot stove ASAP". But hey, if you wanna burn your hands just because someone tells you not to, your choice.

Hands on a hot stove get burns. That's universally not wanted, and an objective health hazzard.

Whether Audacity's telemetry is a problem, or whether the fuss about it is mere hysteria for quite basic error and usage reporting, is up to the user to decide. Alarmist headlines and "Remove it ASAP" (Really? Do you have an alternative for me to use? Do you know whether I might not have 200 much worse privacy wise programs I use anyway and could not care less?) doesn't help.

Is this really that hard to parse?

Not hard to parse, but you are arguing a bit besides the point. It is a solid recommendation given the point of the article. You are of course free to disagree, but then don't argue about the recommendation, but simply give your argument.

Regarding the Hand on stove, it isn't any more "objective" than this a recommendation, there is simply more subjective evidence of it's being bad. Qualitative arguments like that are seldom useful in my experience, focus on the evidence, as I believe you did further down in the thread.

How else are they supposed to improve the program?

Surely not by sending data to law enforcement in Russia, USA, etc…

By using the program themselves? By listening to users' personal feedback? You're making it sound like app development without telemetry is impossible, when in fact Audacity has done very well without this crap for 20 years.

Audacity has not done very well. It has been in a dire need for a usability and a feature update for a very long time.

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