Gah. Too little coffee, too much keyboard. Forwarding ...
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Kurt von Finck<mneptok mneptok com> Date: Wed, Nov 5, 2014 at 6:57 AM Subject: Re: Proposal to have NDAs for sysadmins To: Ekaterina Gerasimova <kittykat3756 gmail com>
I and a few others have recently been working on a privacy policy for
our website. The policy is mostly common sense, but there is one issue
that we have come across which it would be helpful to resolve.
<snip>
What problem is this meant to address? Why now? What happened to make this an issue that requires a formal NDA?
I think these questions will be on the minds of GNOME users and tech journalists. Is the Board ready to answer these questions? And really, we're volunteers. What teeth does an NDA have? I can sign that pledge, but it sets up no legal recourse for users or the Foundation should I violate the agreement.
It strikes me personally that this is a "feel good" measure designed to show that the Foundation is doing something to keep user data private. But think of it in terms of McDonald's making a public pledge to never poison people. It would give you pause and make you wonder why they felt they needed to say anything on that score. It should be a fundamental corporate policy not to poison customers, and should go without saying.
I think this is a similar case. I think it should go without saying that those entrusted with the GNOME infrastructure are people that value privacy.