Gathering User Info -- how much is spyware?

[Sarah Reichelt]

> 1) how much more information can we gather?  In particular the user's
> RAM and hard drive space, as well as the presence of certain
> applications. If these came back home and you put them into a back
> end data base, you could do some very useful analyses of your user base.
>
>   I believe I can search the archives for scripts that test for some
> of these things, especially the latter (apps available on the box)
> but if anyone has already developed a complete system check, please
> do share it.

Richard Gaskin has a gestalt handler that gathers all this sort of
thing which I use. I think it is in the mailing list archives
somewhere.

>
> 2) the second question is broader and possibly should go into a
> different thread:  if one were to deploy an app that might be put to
> use by the 1000's (of public users...people you don't even know) and
> you wanted your app to send info back to "the mother ship" -- at what
> point does the "system check" start to evolve from  "innocent
> hardware-environment profile" to  "spy-ware."
>

My preferred method is similar to yours: gather the data into an email
and use the client's own email program to create the email. Then they
can decide on a case by case basis, whether they want to send you that
info or not. They can edit it and remove any parts that worry them, or
they can refuse to send it at all.

For me it is a 2 step process: firstly they have to decided to use the
"Bug report" menu item, then they have to decided to click "Send" when
the report email is generated. I don't see how this can possibly be
considered "spyware", it's just too voluntary.

Cheers,
Sarah