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Comment by CorrectHorseBat

8 hours ago

[flagged]

It's malicious intent! The developer isn't a kid, they're releasing the software for world wide use. It's a simple thing, do not send private data to remote servers without explicitly asking the user!

  • In your eyes maybe (and mine for the record), but different people have different values and expectations of what is privacy.

    • If that was an acceptable response we shouldn't accept people from those cultures into positions where they can affect our privacy. Or we can just stop using "cultural differences" as a bludgeon to whitewash bad behavior.

    • The "Chinese values" excuse doesn't fly. We're not talking about a random Chinese person, we're talking about a Debian packager. Debian packagers should have values in line with the Debian project's ethos. It's difficult to imagine how somebody to whom Debian's values are alien could even accidentally stumble their way into the position of being a Debian packager.

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That's like saying Afgans have a different idea of consent.

  • Not really because "Chinese" is being used here as an indicator of nationality, not ethnicity.

    I disagree with using it that way because it feeds into the CPC's propaganda mission to conflate the ethnicity of "Han" with citizenship of the PRC, which aids their cultural imperialism ('Taiwan is "Chinese" and we are "China" so therefore people in Taiwan are our people!'). Also the definition is being stretched to include anyone with even the vaguest ethnic ancestry from within territory ruled by the PRC or historic empires ("China" is a word that basically means "empire")

    Anyway I agree that people from the PRC are more used to throwing up their hands at invasions of privacy since the government having total insight into your life is a given there, and to many a positive thing (they may believe it keeps them safe). I also believe that growing up as one of one billion people gives one a sense of useless anonymity - who cares if someone sees your clipboard, there's just too many people for it to matter.

There definitely seems to be a cultural difference when it comes to privacy expectations from Chinese companies and western companies. Doesn't mean it's okay to do this kind of thing in a Debian package, of course, but I can understand how this could've happened.