[wp-hackers] Revisiting phone home and privacy

[Jeremy Clarke]

Reasons for making this a core option:

1) The privacy settings page is uselessly empty right now. Adding more
options to it would make it more visually appealing and make it seem
less like an afterthought.
2) It will increase bloat by ~0.00001%
3) It should not take long to code, compared to e.g. this thread.
4) It will serve a triple purpose: Informing people about the
information being sent, why its good that it is being sent, and
allowing them to disable it to varying degrees if they want it.
5) It is the right thing to do with regard to privacy, even if there
is no immediately-conceivable reason why sensible people would choose
to disable the information sending.

Reasons for not making this a core option:

1) We fear that the rest of the collected data will be uselessly incomplete.
2) It didn't have an option before and we are unwilling to change things.
3) We think people who see the option are too stupid to be trusted with it.

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The second list is judgmental towards the status quo position but I
don't think there are any fundamental arguments against the setting
that don't fit into one of the stated reasons. I would never use the
option, but if I didn't know about the pinging then after considering
the setting I would be glad I was made aware of it and more trusting
of WordPress as a result.


-- 
Jeremy Clarke | http://jeremyclarke.org
Code and Design | http://globalvoicesonline.org