From the «what could possibly go wrong» department:
Feed: SoylentNews
Title: Audacity Faces Scrutiny After New Owners Publish a Privacy Policy
Allowing Data Collection
Author: martyb
Date: Tue, 06 Jul 2021 18:22:00 -0400
Link: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=21/07/06/1955229&from=rss

takyon[1] writes:

Audacity facing scrutiny after new privacy policy allows data collection, makes
app 13+[2]

Muse Group[3] (the owners of MuseScore and Ultimate Guitar) recently acquired
Audacity in early May. On July 2nd, a new privacy policy[4] for the app was
posted to the app's website. Audacity did not previously[5] have any sort of
privacy policy in place for the app on their website, so there is no prior
archived version of this page before its original publishing on July 2nd.

Much of this new privacy policy is harmless and, realistically, only exists
for protecting the interests of Muse Group in any instance of legal trouble.
However, users are frustrated over some of the choices made in this document.

Notably, the privacy policy includes the following: "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." [...] In addition to the concerns raised by
educators, the privacy policy seems to imply that if contacted by law
enforcement, there is no limitation on what data they may collect.

See also: Audacity has been acquired by Muse Group, which also owns MuseScore
and Ultimate Guitar[6] (May 4)
Audio editor Audacity has the audacity to add telemetry collection -- and users
are not happy[7] (May 8)
Telemetry Debate Rocks Audacity Community In Open Source Dustup[8] (May 17)
Audacity reverses course on plans to add opt-in telemetry after outcry[9] (May
17)
Audio editor Audacity denies spyware accusations[10] (June 6)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Original Submission[11]

Read more of this story[12] at SoylentNews.

Links:
[1]: http://soylentnews.org/~takyon/ (link)
[2]: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Audacity-facing-scrutiny-after-new-privacy-policy-allows-data-collection-makes-app-13.549081.0.html (link)
[3]: https://mu.se/ (link)
[4]: https://www.audacityteam.org/about/desktop-privacy-notice/ (link)
[5]: https://web.archive.org/web/20210115003224/https://www.audacityteam.org/about/ (link)
[6]: https://www.musictech.net/news/industry/audacity-acquired-muse-group-ultimate-guitar-musescore/ (link)
[7]: https://betanews.com/2021/05/08/audacity-gains-telemetry/ (link)
[8]: https://hackaday.com/2021/05/17/telemetry-debate-rocks-audacity-community-in-open-source-dustup/ (link)
[9]: https://www.zdnet.com/article/audacity-reverses-course-on-plans-to-add-opt-in-telemetry-after-outcry/ (link)
[10]: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-57721967 (link)
[11]: http://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=49714 (link)
[12]: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=21/07/06/1955229&from=rss (link)

--
Port 80 is overrated.

On 2021-07-09 at 1:30:51 pm BST, "RS Wood" <rsw@therandymon.com> wrote:

> From the «what could possibly go wrong» department:
> Feed: SoylentNews
> Title: Audacity Faces Scrutiny After New Owners Publish a Privacy Policy
> Allowing Data Collection
> Author: martyb
> Date: Tue, 06 Jul 2021 18:22:00 -0400
> Link: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=21/07/06/1955229&from=rss
>
> takyon[1] writes:
>
> Audacity facing scrutiny after new privacy policy allows data collection, makes
> app 13+[2]
>
> Muse Group[3] (the owners of MuseScore and Ultimate Guitar) recently acquired
> Audacity in early May. On July 2nd, a new privacy policy[4] for the app was
> posted to the app's website. Audacity did not previously[5] have any sort of
> privacy policy in place for the app on their website, so there is no prior
> archived version of this page before its original publishing on July 2nd.
>
> Much of this new privacy policy is harmless and, realistically, only exists
> for protecting the interests of Muse Group in any instance of legal trouble.
> However, users are frustrated over some of the choices made in this document.
>
> Notably, the privacy policy includes the following: "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." [...] In addition to the concerns raised by
> educators, the privacy policy seems to imply that if contacted by law
> enforcement, there is no limitation on what data they may collect.
>
> See also: Audacity has been acquired by Muse Group, which also owns MuseScore
> and Ultimate Guitar[6] (May 4)
> Audio editor Audacity has the audacity to add telemetry collection -- and users
> are not happy[7] (May 8)
> Telemetry Debate Rocks Audacity Community In Open Source Dustup[8] (May 17)
> Audacity reverses course on plans to add opt-in telemetry after outcry[9] (May
> 17)
> Audio editor Audacity denies spyware accusations[10] (June 6)
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Original Submission[11]
>
> Read more of this story[12] at SoylentNews.
>
> Links:
> [1]: http://soylentnews.org/~takyon/ (link)
> [2]:
> https://www.notebookcheck.net/Audacity-facing-scrutiny-after-new-privacy-policy-allows-data-collection-makes-app-13.549081.0.html
> (link)
> [3]: https://mu.se/ (link)
> [4]: https://www.audacityteam.org/about/desktop-privacy-notice/ (link)
> [5]:
> https://web.archive.org/web/20210115003224/https://www.audacityteam.org/about/
> (link)
> [6]:
> https://www.musictech.net/news/industry/audacity-acquired-muse-group-ultimate-guitar-musescore/
> (link)
> [7]: https://betanews.com/2021/05/08/audacity-gains-telemetry/ (link)
> [8]:
> https://hackaday.com/2021/05/17/telemetry-debate-rocks-audacity-community-in-open-source-dustup/
> (link)
> [9]:
> https://www.zdnet.com/article/audacity-reverses-course-on-plans-to-add-opt-in-telemetry-after-outcry/
> (link)
> [10]: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-57721967 (link)
> [11]: http://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=49714 (link)
> [12]: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=21/07/06/1955229&from=rss (link)

Kerfuffle is definitely the right word to use here. While I think MuseCore
were pretty dumb in how they made these changes, they seem to have clued up
quick. On the other hand, I'm wary of jumping ship to a forked version,
because I don't really know for sure who's behind them and what their motives
are. At best, it could damage the reputation of Audacity, at worst it could
provide cover for forked versions with much more malicious intent than
anything MuseCore thought of.