Because it's the first step.
“Information, once collected, will be misused.”
― Richard Stallman, How Much Surveillance Can Democracy Withstand?, 2013
“Information, once collected, will be misused.”
― Richard Stallman, How Much Surveillance Can Democracy Withstand?, 2013
I'm pretty sure most people already have their birthdate somewhere on their computer.
I bet the browser gets it.
Like if a browser offered up full unfettered filesystem access without any prompt or consent that'd be a browser issue, not a linux issue, right?
So... I don't really get your argument. If two pieces of software conspire against my privacy, one to store the data and one to transmit it, why can't I blame them both?
The e-mail address also has a use, for important notifications. There are cases where the OS tries to send an email. But as I mentioned, I don't even know where to set it I've never been prompted and if I was I would leave it empty.
And you're free to not fill out this field aswell. Full name is probably a lot more unique and sensitive than birthdate
Do you think it's a good idea for operating systems to comply with 1 or 2 exceptionally retarded state laws? The full name is as far as I know never exposed to websites right?
Computers need to stay what they've always been. Chips that we run our programs on. Linux is the last free (as in freedom) option and they will try to take that away too.
There is and has for a long time been a field for full name.
There is now also a field for birthdate.
You are free to fill out neither or either.
Neither have a strong technical reason to be filled.
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Your position:
You have no problem with the full name, but do have a problem with the birthdate.
You also agree that the field that you have no problem with (full name) is more sensitive than the one you don't (birthdate).
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Have I summarized the situation correctly?
Do you not see the discrepancy in your position?
No, I don't care about either. It can be argued the full name is technically useful for the system administrators on a multi-user system, but I digress. They can add whatever field they want as long as it's optional.
I do however have a problem with regulating what an OS is required or allowed to do and what it has to collect and expose. Linux wasn't created in the US and there's no reason to comply with the California regulators. Will an empty birthdate field really comply with the law? Is that a fact as you claim?
> Do you not see the discrepancy in your position?
I see you reading more than what I'm actually saying. Breath and re-read what I've said and you will notice that I haven't (until this comment) mentioned my position.
While you're at it maybe answer the questions I asked you instead of replying with more questions, I'll quote them for you:
>> Do you think it's a good idea for operating systems to comply with 1 or 2 exceptionally retarded state laws? The full name is as far as I know never exposed to websites right?
I think it's a good thing for OS'es to have the capability to comply with laws when it does not impose undue burden on users or developers. This is to avoid there being 40 different forks/patches of a system that would probably be less transparent than having it in the upstream project.
Whether that capability is activated should always be optional. This field is optional.
Regarding this info being exposed to websites is not up to systemd. If for example firefox were to expose this info to websites without my consent I'd support a fork of firefox or stop using firefox.
As long as the info does not leave my computer I feel it is fearmongering to call it mass surveillance.
> As long as the info does not leave my computer I feel it is fearmongering to call it mass surveillance.
You have to consider the timing and context of the change. What systemd does here is enabling Firefox to share that data (I'm guessing they'll be the last to comply though, Chrome and Safari will jump on it). If you would choose a fork of Firefox over Firefox exposing your data to websites, why are you so eagerly defending systemd exposing the same data to applications?
I tend to apply the same principles to all and react as soon as possible instead of waiting until it's too late. What use is there even of the field if it only stays on your machine, I assume you remember your own birthday?
I also wonder how non-systemd Linux is going to handle it. I mean ultimately it may be baked into the kernel in some way or another. It would be pretty sad though.
In any case, I agree. This is just the first step.