I propose to remove the Problem Reporting section from the Privacy panel in the initial setup.
This feature looks like a spying one. Even if it mentions it to be anonymous, it may be confusing some people for not matching Purism's philosophy in term of privacy. "Let me track you for your convenience" is the kind of message that Google and Microsoft keep saying and that we should avoid in our OS in my opinion.
Also tracked here: https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/Apps_Issues/issues/162
related https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/Apps_Issues/issues/162 - i think it would be a good feature to have if people opt in - it's by no means about convenience but to give us enough data to fix issues. It's also data that might be hard for the user to provide.
If we use this we should make it very obvious what is collected under which circumstances.
If this feature is really important for the PureOS team, then we should keep it.
If we keep it, then we need to make sure that it is always off by default.
There is a certain amount of professionalism having this as a option - I believe it shows that we want to fix issues and that we're open about the issues we have. This can be empowering for users, most of whom come from closed, proprietary worlds where they never see the data that the send to nor see their issues fixed in a timely manner. At the same time, I agree with Francois that this may appear to be an invasion of privacy even if you can turn it off. The reason is that users don't know clearly what information is gathered and how. "Reports" are sent on "technical problems". I feel this is very vague and I imagine most people will turn it off, so my preference is to have this turned off by default and perhaps not part of the initial setup. If a user reports issues we can ask them to turn it on. Also, where does the collected information show up?
Thanks for your input @jeremiah.foster.
I don't know how many people use this feature on Debian but I doubt that many people concerned about privacy, as Librem users are, will want to switch this feature on.
Also, I don't see anywhere to switch it back off (or on) in the settings. Our current Privacy panel in the Control Center doesn't have that feature.
It currently looks like a trap where, if switched on in the settings, there is no way to switch it off. So whether we keep it or not in the initial setup, we need to implement it in the settings.
And, actually, I am in favor of removing it from the initial setup while it is not implemented in the settings.
Okay, agreed. Let's move this to the Apps_Issues bug tracker so that developers can see this and take action.
I don't know how many people use this feature on Debian but I doubt that many people concerned about privacy, as Librem users are, will want to switch this feature on.
@francois i think you're mixing things here - debian does not at all use that feature - this is from GNOME upstream.
Sorry for my confusion @guido .
However the problem is the same. I don't know how much this feature has been beneficial to those who have ever implemented it in their OS, whoever they are, but I am not sure that Librem users, seeking for privacy, will be attracted by that. I may be wrong about it though?
Again, if you guys think that this feature is beneficial, we should keep it but I think that we should make sure that it ca be switched off in the settings. If this is not doable in the short term, we should remove or hide that feature in the initial setup while it is not available in the settings.