Re: [cross-project-issues-dev] New UUID in Eclipse Platform

["Ian Skerrett" <ian.skerrett@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> The EF cannot match a UUID to an actual individual, yes, but you still
want to "figure out profiles" of actual individuals.

We have no interest or plans to profile actual individuals. We are looking
at aggregate data. 


-----Original Message-----
From: cross-project-issues-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:cross-project-issues-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Alexandre
Montplaisir
Sent: Friday, June 3, 2016 5:13 PM
To: Cross project issues <cross-project-issues-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [cross-project-issues-dev] New UUID in Eclipse Platform



On 2016-06-03 04:47 PM, Pascal Rapicault wrote:
> On 6/3/2016 4:35 PM, Alexandre Montplaisir wrote:
>> Hi Ian,
>>
>> Sorry I will have to be "that guy", but I do find this a bit concerning.
>>
>> First, The eclipse.uuid file is put in the user's home directory, 
>> which means that it ends up identifying a *user*, not just an Eclipse 
>> installation. If the same user wipes his installation and re-installs 
>> another Ecilpse, he keeps the same ID.
>     The missing part here is the definition of user. Yes the file is 
> stored in the user folder but there is no way for the EF to match your
> UUID to an actual individual.     The reason why it matters to store 
> this file in the user folder is to because we want to be able to know 
> if a user updates, or uses multiple versions of Eclipse. This is again 
> very important to figure out the profile of our users.

The EF cannot match a UUID to an actual individual, yes, but you still want
to "figure out profiles" of actual individuals.

I completely understand the helpfulness of such metrics. However some users,
like myself, are not comfortable with the idea that somebody somewhere is
building a profile of them. The polite thing to do is to at least ask the
user if they agree to be tracked. If they are fine with it, then no problem.

The biggest problem, imo, is not that the feature exists, but that is it
being enabled by default, and silently. There should at least be a warning
to the user, or as Jesse mentioned, making it opt-in instead of opt-out.

> Finally also know that the UUID is generated uniquely and if it was 
> regenerated multiple times on the same machine, it would lead to a 
> different ID.

Of course, but the default case that will happen 95% of the time is that
file will be generated once and stay there until the user wipes its home
directory.

>
>
>>
>> This is also done by default, with no warning to the user. Even 
>> proprietary programs often pop a window on the first run, asking the 
>> user if they want to provide anonymous usage statistics and the like, 
>> and giving them the option to disable it. Even if that option is 
>> enabled by default in the dialog, that is still miles better than not 
>> telling the user about it at all, and requiring him to know about an 
>> obscure "eclipse.uuid=0" configuration option.
>>
>>
>> I realize I'm late to the party and the decision has already been 
>> made, but you said to let you know if we have questions or concerns, 
>> so I am doing just that ;)
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> -- 
>> Alexandre Montplaisir
>> Trace Compass Committer & Project Lead
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 2016-06-03 11:13 AM, Ian Skerrett wrote:
>>> All,
>>>
>>> I wanted to make everyone aware that a UUID has been added to the 
>>> Eclipse
>>> Platform [1] and is available in the current Neon RC.  This was done 
>>> at the
>>> request of the Eclipse Foundation.
>>>
>>>
>>> The UUID is automatically generated and stored in the
>>> ${user.home}/.eclipse/eclipse.uuid file. The UUID does not contain any
>>> personally identifiable information. If a user do not want to have this
>>> property set they are instructed to set eclipse.uuid=0. Information 
>>> about
>>> the UUID has been included in the Eclipse Platform N&N [2].
>>>
>>> The UUID will be automatically added to the user-agent of http 
>>> requests to
>>> *.eclipse.org servers. For Neon, the projects that make these types of
>>> requests include p2 [1], MPC [3] and AERI [4]. I would expect other 
>>> projects
>>> will add a uuid in the future.
>>>
>>>
>>> The immediate questions for many people are 1) why are we doing 
>>> this, and 2)
>>> what about the privacy concerns.  Let me attempt to answer both of 
>>> these
>>> questions.
>>>
>>> Why are we doing this?
>>>
>>> The Eclipse Foundation has started an program to better understand 
>>> our user
>>> community. We are using a log file analysis service, Splunk, to 
>>> analyze many
>>> of our log files to get a better idea of how people are using 
>>> Eclipse. For
>>> instance, how many people actively use Eclipse, what version of Java 
>>> is the
>>> most popular with the Eclipse user community, what version of Eclipse
>>> Platform is being used or what operating system is being used? In 
>>> the past,
>>> this type of information was typically a 'best guess'. We believe 
>>> can do
>>> better by having the actual data of our user community. The UUID 
>>> will allow
>>> us to get a more accurate answer to many of these questions.
>>>
>>> What about the privacy concerns?
>>>
>>> The UUID is anonymous and does not contain personably identifiable
>>> information. We only intend to use and analyze the UUID at an aggregate
>>> level. A user is able to opt-out of sending a UUID by setting
>>> eclipse.uuid=0. The Eclipse Foundation has a published Privacy 
>>> Policy [5]
>>> that details our specific practices.
>>>
>>>   Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. I 
>>> appreciate this
>>> might be a sensitive topic but I do believe it is the right thing to 
>>> do for
>>> the Eclipse community.
>>>
>>> Regards
>>>
>>> Ian
>>>
>>>
>>>   [1] https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=490112
>>>
>>> [2] https://www.eclipse.org/eclipse/news/4.6/platform.php
>>>
>>> [2] https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=492916
>>>
>>> [3] https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=492917
>>>
>>> [4] https://eclipse.org/legal/privacy.php
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>

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