Audacity is Now Spyware

Crimsonshade

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-57721967

Audio-edit software Audacity has denied accusations its new privacy policy has transformed it into "possible spyware".

Muse head of strategy Daniel Ray told BBC News: "We don't know anything about our users.

"We don't want users' personal information - that doesn't help us."

The company, which bought Audacity in April, intended to release more frequent updates and wanted to alert users, Mr Ray said.

And the policy, "written by lawyers, to be understood by lawyers rather than the average person", was a requirement for any software that sent any form of information back to its creators.

The policy says Audacity collects "very limited data" about users - no "direct identifiers" such as names or contact details - and an account profile is not required.

luetage

@crimsonshade said in Audacity is Now Spyware:

Muse head of strategy Daniel Ray told BBC News: "We don't know anything about our users.

Well, that’s certainly true, or they wouldn’t have changed the policy in the first place. I see no future for Audacity, this will just get forked or disappear into obscurity.

Crimsonshade

Hate to say, but I would have to agree with you. Even if nothing untoward is actually happening (and I in no way am implying I believe one thing or another), the mere perception in your potential audience of not having their best interests in mind can kill any product stone dead. Plus, this would not be the first time a company has taken over an established software and left its former users feeling alienated due to a sudden change in direction.

jtid

Not sure if I understand correctly but isn't the main job of spyware to spy on you without telling you?

Audacity seem to be telling folks what they are doing and giving them a choice to use it or not.

paul1149

@jtid But not many read terms of usage.

Catweazle

Audacity webpage, in Blacklight

alt text
....-

greybeard

OT
I've used Sonic Visualiser for several years for my limited applications. From the Centre for Digital Music, Queen Mary University of London.
Supports Vamp and Audacity plug-ins.

Licensing: Sonic Visualiser is under the GNU GPL (v2 or later).
I have not found a ToS unless it is in the install.

Catweazle

@guigirl , no, only has the normal Google trackers.

Stardust

@guigirl said in Audacity is Now Spyware:

An alternative perspective.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/07/no-open-source-audacity-audio-editor-is-not-spyware/

Interesting, good point about FOSSPost site:

The personal data being collected as outlined in the first five bullet points is not particularly broad—in fact, it's quite similar to the collected data described in FOSSPost's own privacy policy: IP address, browser user-agent, "some other cookies your browser may provide us with," and (by way of WordPress and Google analytics) "your geographical location, cookies for other websites you visited or any other information your browser can give about you."

BTW I also see cloudflareinsights[.]com in my uBO. And all of these trackers are on a site with 'FOSS' in it's name

I hope we will see a good fork without telemetry and trackers or another new open source alternative app.

digitrance

@jtid

Not sure if I understand correctly but isn't the main job of spyware to spy on you without telling you?

Do we have an alternate word for software that spies on you / leaks your personal data whilst telling you?

Apart from "Google".

sgunhouse

@digitrance Facebook.

Was just reading - Audacity is not spyware, yet. While the terms of service have been changed, the software itself hasn't been updated yet and therefore can't currently spy on you. Now, that might change with the next release but it might not.

DoctorG

The older Audacity 2.4 versions have no tracking.

jtid

@digitrance said in Audacity is Now Spyware:

Do we have an alternate word for software that spies on you / leaks your personal data whilst telling you?

Maybe we need a different word.... maybe its just 'software' as they all do it and always have.

My definition of spyware has always been that it operates covertly.

Regarding T & Cs ... no one obviously reads them UNLESS you are worried about a specific thing and then you can make a choice. I've never read my banks terms, or phone company or electric company etc... better things to do and can't read font size 4 anymore

I would be more concerned if Audacity had implemented telemetry and tracking without telling anyone. In fact they seem to be quite transparent.

Catweazle

@stardust , I already have endless discussions with people who believe that FOSS is synonymous with privacy and security. They do not understand that the OpenSource concept has other purposes regarding development and collaboration, but apart from this it is not necessarily more private and not more secure than any other software.
In this regard, it is always necessary to read the product's TOS and PP.
Another good example yesterday, someone named a new FOSS search engine, ChatNoir (by Webis -German), supposedly private. But a look at the TOS and PP taught me that it is worse than GOOGLE.

Privacy Policy

While using the services, personal data about you may be gathered by Webis, or by a third party contractor. You agree to transfer usage rights of the gathered data to Webis and third party contractors of Webis without restrictions of time, location, or purpose of use of this data, if the use is directly or indirectly related to providing the services.

Provision of the services by Webis

Should your use of the services violate the terms of service, Webis may deny you access to (parts of) the services at any time, without prior notice, without explanation.

Webis is not required to offer the services free of charge.

Webis may modify or deactivate the services without prior notice or explanation.ou agree to the privacy policy which is in place at the time at which data is gathered.ey always say that 'But in FOSS you can read the code', of course, but if people do not read the conditions, even less will they do it by reading thousands and millions of lines of script.

Github

code3

@catweazle You are missing the point. Like Stardust said, there will likely be a telemetry-free fork. Or maybe the lingering threat of a fork will prevent the new owner from adding anything creepy.

And if there really was demand for yet another search engine, someone could set up their own chatnoir server that won’t be tracked.

DoctorG

Slightly offtopic, but as we talk about Audacity and its forks, haters attacked a Audicity fork maintainer and he gave up for his own & family's safety. #nohate #resist
See more at https://github.com/tenacityteam/tenacity/issues/99#issue-938317947

Catweazle

@code3 , yes, but this isn't the point. It's a lesson for people who think FOSS=privacy. All other maybe valid for developers who are able to review and fork the app, but not for the normal user. In my case, I don't have a server and no have enough skills for review the app, for this reason this app is useless for most users. Prefer to use directly Google with better results.
Same for Audacicity, good if you can fork it, most of people can't, it's much easier to search for an alternative, which is the best solucion.

code3

@catweazle But once someone forks it, you have an alternative

No need to be a developer yourself.

Catweazle

@code3 , where is the forked alternative, supposing I need this app now? I am bored with alternatives FOSS which worked "selfhosted". Well this are probably free of trackers, but also the server you use, if it isn't a own one?
For this the only thing what a normal user can do and must do, is to read the TOS and PP of the app, before he decide to use it. There is no other way. It's irrelevant if it's FOSS or not.

DoctorG

@code3 Yes, you need friendly helpers and colleagues.

As "Audacity" is GPL you can fork a version with out tracking and telemetry. And that is nice with open software.
But you can not call it "Audacity", there is a trademark registered.

And as i know for my Debian the Audac* 2.x packages have no telemetry and other spy functions.