6Foot2 Posted July 4, 2021 Posted July 4, 2021 Link: Desktop Privacy Notice | Audacity ® ...3. Minors The App we provide is not intended for individuals below the age of 13. If you are under 13 years old, please do not use the App... 1
mavhc Posted July 4, 2021 Posted July 4, 2021 So will someone fork it, or provide a non telemetry build? So many options as it's FLOSS
6Foot2 Posted July 4, 2021 Author Posted July 4, 2021 Link: The best free Audacity Alternatives - gHacks Tech News Audacity is a popular open source audio editor that is available for Windows, Mac and Linux devices. It is free to use and supports a wide range of editing features. It is used for a wide range of activities, from mixing YouTube video sounds to creating soundtracks or audio samples, or analysis of audio files. Other features include converting audio files, ripping tracks from audio CDs, or cutting, splitting or joining sounds. Project ownership of Audacity changed in 2021 and one of the first planned changes to the project was the introduction of Telemetry. The plan was abandoned, but the controversy continued with the publication of a new Privacy Notice. Alternatives to Audacity... Summary: The suggested alternatives include: Ocenaudio Wavosaur Audiodope
jmak Posted July 4, 2021 Posted July 4, 2021 Am I missing something awful here? Loads of the products we use in school send back telemetry of some kind. Lots of software has terms and conditions, none of which pupils under 13 could legally agree to. Surely we (the school) make the assessment as to what is suitable?
mavhc Posted July 5, 2021 Posted July 5, 2021 Don't need to switch software, that's half the point of FLOSS, just fork it https://github.com/cookiengineer/audacity is the first fork I've found
Arthur Posted July 5, 2021 Posted July 5, 2021 So many options as it's FLOSS Search source code for telemetry URL(s), block them with your firewall or hosts file? Alternatively, simply block Audacity from accessing the Internet.
Arthur Posted July 5, 2021 Posted July 5, 2021 https://twitter.com/Foss_Hub/status/1412087516472172546 PSA: Audacity older versions available on FossHub are safe to use up to version 3.0.2 (including). The upcoming 3.0.3 will use data collection. More info here: https://blog.fosshub.com/audacity-old-version-without-data-collection-telemetry The old repository is here: www.fosshub.com/Audacity-old.html
supportman Posted July 6, 2021 Posted July 6, 2021 Am I missing something awful here? Loads of the products we use in school send back telemetry of some kind. Lots of software has terms and conditions, none of which pupils under 13 could legally agree to. Surely we (the school) make the assessment as to what is suitable? Nope not missing anything, just a load of opensource nerds getting on their high horse. They are welcome to fork it if they don't like features like this. Of course 99% of the people commenting won't do that and just like like to make their points. Having used Musescore (and many other Open source software that uses crash reporting telemetry) all I can say is Audacity will most likely benefit from it immensely.
GrumbleDook Posted July 6, 2021 Posted July 6, 2021 Am I missing something awful here? Loads of the products we use in school send back telemetry of some kind. Lots of software has terms and conditions, none of which pupils under 13 could legally agree to. Surely we (the school) make the assessment as to what is suitable? There are 3 distinct areas for this and I'll *try* to summarise as best as I can. 1 - contract agreements. Where software is expected to be used by an end user in an organisation, you will generally find that the EULA reflects this (or at least partially covers that it can happen and fudges the rest) but occasionally you will come across one that is adamant that the only want to deal with the end-user. In those circumstances, you have to consider whether any contract is enforceable with the end-user. At this point we can go into legal discussions about children and contracts, but the important point is that a valid contract with a minor (where it is permitted) is based on the minor having full understanding of the implications. Heck ... I don't understand half the EULAs I read! 2 - Personal Data. If the organisation requesting the data is doing it for their own purposes (so not even doing it because they have a DPA where they say that it is for the improvement of the existing product) then they are a data controller in their own right. If that is the case, under what lawful basis is data being obtained by them and processed? If agreeing the EULA then it could be contract or consent. We've just covered contract, so for consent you are going to have to get it from the parents, and if they say no then you have to have an alternative. If you have an alternative anyway, why are you still using this product? 3 - Telemetry. Stick 3 privacy professionals in a room and ask them a question and you will get 4 answers ... the common one being, "it depends!" ... and without a detailed review of exactly what telemetry it is, and for what purpose, then here be dragons. THis is why you need that DPA to give you the info. Realistically, I know schools will fudge it and find ways around it. Bulk acceptance of the EULA by finding a reg setting that makes it already accepted, blocking of the website to create accounts and blocking of telemetry data going anywhere ... but if you are doing that for a lot of software, why not spend the time with software that you don't have to fudge things with?
FragglePete Posted July 6, 2021 Posted July 6, 2021 Oh, well this just got interesting..... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-57721967 Pete
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