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Console Do Not Track (DNT)
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Gatsby has GATSBY_TELEMETRY_DISABLED.
Homebrew has HOMEBREW_NO_ANALYTICS.
Syncthing has STNOUPGRADE, a config file setting
for disabling crash reporting, and a GUI prompt for usage reporting. Google
Cloud SDK CLI tools has gcloud config set disable_usage_reporting true.
.NET Core has DOTNET_CLI_TELEMETRY_OPTOUT. Netlify's CLI has
netlify --telemetry-disable. The AWS Serverless Application Model
CLI has SAM_CLI_TELEMETRY=0. The Microsoft Azure CLI has
AZURE_CORE_COLLECT_TELEMETRY=0. You get the idea.
This is a proposal for a single, standard environment variable that plainly and unambiguously expresses LACK OF CONSENT by a user of that software to any of the following:
- ad tracking
- usage reporting, anonymous or not
- automatic update phone-home
- crash reporting
- non-essential-to-functionality requests of any kind to the creator of the software or other tracking services
We just want local software, and by providing it to us you are not entitled to our usage, our crashes, or our IP addresses.
Remember: in the right hands, an IP address is a physical location. If you would not collect your users' GPS coordinates against their wishes, you should not be collecting their IP addresses against their wishes!
Authors, do the ethical thing and respect the following environment variable in your software and your limited rights to the computers of your users:
export DO_NOT_TRACK=1
Adopted
- netdata system monitor: netdata/netdata#7846
- tilt: windmilleng/tilt#2878
- turbo: docs
PRs and Status
- homebrew: Homebrew/brew #6745
- gatsby: gatsbyjs/gatsby #19528
- netlify-cli: netlify/cli#737
- syncthing: syncthing/syncthing #6158
- dotnet: dotnet/sdk #3917
- Archey4: archey4/51cdfa98
- others: get involved
Contribute!
Source code is here: consoledonottrack.com.
You may send patches to sneak@sneak.berlin.
See Also
Update, 2024
This project was a mistake; it implicitly endorses opt-out spyware (aka telemetry).
It doesn't matter if you allow your users to disable telemetry with a flag or environment variable; to opt them in to spying automatically without their explicit, opt-in consent is unethical. Even the people who implemented this flag above are scumbags, because their software is spyware unless you set it. Shipping spyware is unethical.
Software should ask first. Failing to opt out is not consent.