Non-Free parts in OsmAnd

[harryrhr]

Hello,

as I have read at the f-droid forum at http://f-droid.org/forums/topic/update-osmand-and-osmand/
OsmAnd now contains a proprietary library in the newest version,
namely libGoogleAnalytics.jar, thus rendering OsmAnd non-free.

As a supporter of free software I don't want to install proprietary
software.

Would you condsider to remove libGoogleAnalytics.jar again or at
least provide an alternative version without it? This would make it
possible that OsmAnd would be updated in the f-droid repository and
users who don't want proprietary software could use the newest version
again.

Kind regards,

Henry

[Yves]

Would it be possible to choose at install to use it or not?
Yves

harryrhr <harr...@googlemail.com> a écrit :

[Victor Shcherb]

As you can see libGoogleAnalytics.jar  is not critical for Osmand at all. We can think how to easy replace it or exclude it.

As I understand F-Droid accepts only fully GPL compatible applications?

Victor

2012/4/11 Yves <yve...@gmail.com>

[Pavol Zibrita]

Maybe we can easily switch to this?

http://piwik.org/faq/new-to-piwik/

Best regards,
Pavol

[Pavol Zibrita]

There seem to be some early java implementation.

http://dev.piwik.org/trac/ticket/2172

Best regards,
Pavol

[harryrhr]

On 11 Apr., 11:58, Victor Shcherb <victor.shch...@gmail.com> wrote:
> As you can see *libGoogleAnalytics.jar  *is not critical for Osmand at all.

> We can think how to easy replace it or exclude it.
> As I understand F-Droid accepts only fully GPL compatible applications?

F-Droid is a Android repository which contains only free software. It
is featured in the "Free your Android" campaign of the Free Software
Foundation Europe, see http://fsfe.org/campaigns/android/liberate.en.html

The software must be releaed under a free license according to the
list at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html and of course
the source code must be available. As far as I know F-Dorid rebuilds
all apps from source before making it available in the repo.

Henry

[katie kate]

On Apr 11, 10:58 am, Victor Shcherb <victor.shch...@gmail.com> wrote:
> As you can see *libGoogleAnalytics.jar  *is not critical for Osmand at all.

> We can think how to easy replace it or exclude it.

Please exclude it.
I have to say I was so dissapointed when I realized Osmand was using
Google Analytics. Osmand is just about the most perfect GPS app for
android. Please don't ruin it with analytics adons

One of my pet hates about some Android apps is their lack of respect
for peoples privacy. Ad plugins, analytic plugins etc. drive me nuts.
As best I can I stay away from such apps. And especially for apps that
have access to location data.

Please remove the analytics addon.

Or if you feel you simply must include an analytics addon please
respect your users privacy and give us an option to disable it and opt
out of sending such data.

I've actually downgraded to "OsmAnd 0.7.0 16-12 master" specifically
because it doesn't have Google Analytics.

Disappointed,
Kate :(

[Pavol Zibrita]

Hi Kate!

   I understand your concerns. However, OsmAnd does not use it to send
some personal imformation. The main idea was to see, what downloads are
the most frequent, so that we can optimize the download for users on servers.

Also, OsmAnd is open source, so, you can check what data it is sending, and
point out, or warn if it is not ok.

Another usefull thing is that such analytics can help to see, what path in menus
users use and shorten the ones, that are frequently used, for example. (this is not
done in the app). All such scenarios can help improve software without using
any personal information of the user.

Is it for you NO analytics usage, or NO GOOGLE analytics usage? Or something else?

Best regards,
Pavol

[katie kate]

Hi Pavol,
I guessed there was some legitimate developer based reason for the
analytics addon, but as a non-developer its very difficult to know
whats going on behind the scenes.

One thing I didn't like was the way it wasn't really officially
announced or explained that Osmand was starting to use Google
Analytics [At least I came across nothing from Osmand that officially
warned me, it was only another addon detector app that informed me].

I have no real way of knowing what data the app is sending back. I
really don't like any of my apps phoning home with out my consent.

> Is it for you NO analytics usage, or NO GOOGLE analytics usage? Or
> something else?

Pretty much both to be honest. I dislike Google Analytcs more, but I
really don't like any analytic data being sent from my apps.

If you feel you must use an analytics addon I'd ask that you (a) use
an open source analyics addon to comply with Harry's request to keep
Osmand "free"(b) that there be a Settings menu option that would
explain why the analytics addon is there [to help improve the app
etc] and most importantly that it (c) has an option to disable it
completely and let the user completely opt out of the analytics data
collection system.

But my real preference would be to have no analytics package at all.

I understand you mean well by it and it is to improve Osmand, but some
people don't like the idea of their apps sending back data about their
app usage [anonymous or not]

Thanks for for for asking, Pavol.

Kate.

[Petr Kulhavy]

Hi,

the usual approach in other apps is a configuration checkbox with
something like "send anonymous data to developers in order to improve
the application". I think that would be a good solution.

Petr

[katie kate]

On Apr 11, 10:26 am, harryrhr <harryr...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> as I have read at the f-droid forum athttp://f-droid.org/forums/topic/update-osmand-and-osmand/

Hi Henry,
[Sorry, this is a little bit off topic] Just wanted to say thanks for
highlighting that f-droid.org website. Its great. Its just what I've
been looking for.

Thanks,

Kate.

[Markus Lindholm]

I just want to concur with the sentiment that
- The user should opt-in for analytics to be gathered and sent
- OsmAnd should not be dependent on non-free libraries

/Markus

[Aaron Whitehouse]

On 12/04/12 01:45, Petr Kulhavy wrote:
> Hi,
>
> the usual approach in other apps is a configuration checkbox with
> something like "send anonymous data to developers in order to improve
> the application". I think that would be a good solution.

This seems the optimal solution to me. Ideally using a Free analytics
program instead of Google's.

I think it is valuable to use statistics to improve applications and am
personally happy to send these to OSMAnd (with the expected conditions
that they be properly anonymous, don't send precise GPS locations etc,
which I can check in a FOSS application).

Aaron

[Victor Shcherb]

There was intention to see how much time users spend on particular screens (anonymously) but it has not been working from beginning. So it would be good to delete it because it simply useless.

There is only one place where Osmand records user action when the user downloads the map from internet and it sends information what file it is going to download and what the version Osmand is. That's it. It was done just to double check what data is downloaded directly from the phone. Certainly it doesn't require whole google analytics jar.

Best Regards,

Victor

2012/4/12 Aaron Whitehouse <li...@whitehouse.org.nz>

[katie kate]

On Apr 12, 2:27 pm, Victor Shcherb <victor.shch...@gmail.com> wrote:
> So it would be good to delete it because it simply useless.

That would be great from both my privacy point of view and Henry's
Free software point of view.

> There is only one place where Osmand records user action when the user
> downloads the map from internet and it sends information what file it is
> going to download and what the version Osmand is. That's it. It was done
> just to double check what data is downloaded directly from the phone.
> Certainly it doesn't require whole google analytics jar.

Could that not be done on the server side, maybe the server could keep
track of what "user agent" downloaded what map?

[Pavol Zibrita]

Hi.

  It is already deleted. And it was already done also on server side, this was kind of double check.

Best regards,
Pavol

Dňa 16.4.2012 17:20, "katie kate" <the...@hotmail.com> napísal(-a):

[katie kate]

On Apr 16, 4:25 pm, Pavol Zibrita <pavol.zibr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi.
>
>   It is already deleted. And it was already done also on server side, this
> was kind of double check.

That's great news. You've made my day Pavol.
Osmand is once again, officially, the best GPS app for Andorid !!!!

Thank you :)

Kate