Re: [gentoo-soc] About "Create and release a Gentoo stats server/client"

[Sebastian Pipping]

Fabian Groffen wrote:
> Is it really necessary to associate collected information to personal
> data at all?

Are you referring to item

  * Add user's real name and contact info if wanted

? That's completely optional.  I expect some people to
be willing to share their contact info, especially in the
beginning.  It's not "needed" in any way.  Does that answer
your question?


>  What if there would be a unique identifier (hashed MAC
> address?) that just identifies the Gentoo installation, would that be
> enough?  That way you can track without any privacy issues involved, I
> think.

We could use such an identifier to identify repeated submissions
(users should send in more up to date again later) and handle
some kind of "database pollution" attacks.  We wouldn't catch
attackers that change their MAC before submission.

I suppose a privacy issue still exists as you might be able to
resolve certain changes in submission data over time down
to a person.  I better not construct scenarios here, but I'm
afraid that would be possible.

I'd love to hear from an expert about this.



Sebastian