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POSoftware that "Phones Home"; good? bad? Evil? What notice does one give? How to?
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copied!<p><strong>PHONE HOME</strong></p> <p>Everybody wants to now and then. ...What about software when it grows up and becomes a mature product? Shouldn't it be an adult and live in its new home quietly? Or, should it show some affection from whence it came?...</p> <p>I've heard some say they'd rip out from the platters any bits that try and communicate without their say so. I've also noticed a large number of products that now routinely ask for permission to send statistical use information. And there are many levels in between.</p> <p>I'm sitting on the fence. </p> <p>There’s a long paragraphs explanation of how this question came to me, but for all our sakes, I wrote then deleted it. Suffice to say, I’m Chief Scientist, an officer of the company <em>and</em> head of our development efforts; this is a really big deal and I’m looking for insight from the programming community as I'm not getting any useful feedback here...</p> <p>The biggest argument for <strong>PHONE HOME</strong> is that some involved fear there is likely to be serious attempts to cheat the contract(s) and if the software occasionally phoned home it would help detect cheating (for which there are penalties).</p> <p>Other pro arguments are that it can provide usage statistics and perhaps detect when updates are appropriate.</p> <p>The biggest argument against is that it’s offensive.</p> <p>I also haven’t a clue how I would architect this. Clearly, everything calling home all the time is not going to fly. There are a half dozen major products and some will run 24 X 7 X 365.24 and some will be up and down like a frigen yo-yo, yet some data on all of them would be nice - Local repository?</p> <p>Then there’s connection strategy – a mail message, while convenient, may be a bad call because it can be more obtrusive (perhaps). Then, a simple TCP ssh call may not be so great, either.</p> <p>So, how about it? If you’re pro, please tell me why. If you’re against, why also. Examples of "doing it right?" Contractual text you like somewhere - or hate?</p> <p>Next, IF we decide to do it, how should we do it – how would YOU do it? Why?</p> <p>Frankly, I’m <em>profoundly</em> torn. I hate such things in general, but as an officer of the company, I have to acknowledge above my own feelings, there’s potentially a lot of money on the table here, and being offended may not be a good argument.</p> <p>Thanks for your thoughts.</p>

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