GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 761861
Privacy policy links to Mozilla's without an explanation
Last modified: 2016-10-10 16:26:02 UTC
The privacy page has a "Privacy policy" link. Opening it shows a webpage from Mozilla. This is confusing - why am I reading a mozilla privacy policy? How is this relevant to me as a user?
I believe this is because we are using mozilla's location database. Clearly, having an explanation for this in the UI would be good.
Created attachment 320903 [details] [review] privacy: explain why we show Mozilla's policy
Review of attachment 320903 [details] [review]: Looks fine to me
Attachment 320903 [details] pushed as d36128b - privacy: explain why we show Mozilla's policy
With this change the privacy page now shows: "Uses Mozilla Location Service: Privacy Policy" Where "Privacy Policy" in fedora 24 links to https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:PrivacyPolicy, which has nothing to do with Mozilla. Looking at the code, the link destination that "Privacy Policy" points to is either taken from the PRIVACY_POLICY_URL= line in /etc/os-release if it exists, or falls back to https://location.services.mozilla.com/privacy. This is confusing. Shouldn't the link to Mozilla always be there, while the link to the privacy policy specific to the OS should be shown additionally, provided it exists in /etc/os-release? Also, the current layout of the privacy panel don't make it clear what uses the Mozilla location database. Is it used by the "Location Service", by "Automatic Problem Reporting", by both, or always, no matter what I turn on or off ...?
(In reply to Volker Sobek (weld) from comment #5) ... > Looking at the code, the link destination that "Privacy Policy" points to is > either taken from the PRIVACY_POLICY_URL= line in /etc/os-release if it > exists, or falls back to https://location.services.mozilla.com/privacy. This > is confusing. > > Shouldn't the link to Mozilla always be there, while the link to the privacy > policy specific to the OS should be shown additionally, provided it exists > in /etc/os-release? I wasn't aware that the URL could vary - I agree that this is confusing and that we should probably link to Mozilla separately. > Also, the current layout of the privacy panel don't make it clear what uses > the Mozilla location database. Is it used by the "Location Service", by > "Automatic Problem Reporting", by both, or always, no matter what I turn on > or off ...? I don't see a huge issue here, particularly if location services had its own privacy policy link, but increasing the space between the location and problem reporting sections would help to distinguish the links.
(In reply to Allan Day from comment #6) > (In reply to Volker Sobek (weld) from comment #5) > ... > > Looking at the code, the link destination that "Privacy Policy" points to is > > either taken from the PRIVACY_POLICY_URL= line in /etc/os-release if it > > exists, or falls back to https://location.services.mozilla.com/privacy. This > > is confusing. > > > > Shouldn't the link to Mozilla always be there, while the link to the privacy > > policy specific to the OS should be shown additionally, provided it exists > > in /etc/os-release? > > I wasn't aware that the URL could vary The URL is provided by the OS itself. > - I agree that this is confusing and > that we should probably link to Mozilla separately. The OS-provided privacy policy should link to the Mozilla privacy policy. > > Also, the current layout of the privacy panel don't make it clear what uses > > the Mozilla location database. Is it used by the "Location Service", by > > "Automatic Problem Reporting", by both, or always, no matter what I turn on > > or off ...? > > I don't see a huge issue here, particularly if location services had its own > privacy policy link, but increasing the space between the location and > problem reporting sections would help to distinguish the links. It's best we used a single link for both, because it explains how the OS integrated those 2 services.
Created attachment 333923 [details] Screenshot of Privacy page (with Automatic Bug Reporting) Why not use 2 links? One under Location Services for Mozilla and one for Automatic Problem Reporting for the few distros that have that feature enabled. (I recommend testing on Fedora 24+ for now). Here's a screenshot that shows how it's confusing right now. I don't think we should assume that distros will have updated their Privacy Policy to link to Mozilla's.
Jeremy's suggestion seems good to me. Another short-term way to fix this for GNOME 3.22 would be to just always show the Mozilla privacy policy. (In reply to Bastien Nocera from comment #7) > The OS-provided privacy policy should link to the Mozilla privacy policy. This works too, but only if we remove the blurb about Mozilla location service in case we're linking to a non-Mozilla privacy policy.
(In reply to Jeremy Bicha from comment #8) > Created attachment 333923 [details] > Screenshot of Privacy page (with Automatic Bug Reporting) > > Why not use 2 links? One under Location Services for Mozilla and one for > Automatic Problem Reporting for the few distros that have that feature > enabled. (I recommend testing on Fedora 24+ for now). I decided to take this approach for 3.22.1; maintainers, please object if you want something different.
Created attachment 336184 [details] Screenshot of proposed UI I decided to remove the "Uses Mozilla location services:" string because we'd need a string freeze break in order to add a parallel "Problems are reported to $DISTRO:" string. We could do that in master, but I don't think it's needed.
Created attachment 336185 [details] [review] privacy: Show Mozilla and distro privacy policies separately Currently we have a link that purports to display the Mozilla privacy policy, but it actually shows a distro privacy policy if a distro has one configured, which is wrong. Fix this by showing both privacy policies separately. (Note: I don't know what behavior you want here, but this is at least good enough for 3.22, and I think it works as a permanent solution too.)
Nope, patch is broken when ABRT is unavailable, let me try again
Created attachment 336186 [details] [review] privacy: Show Mozilla and distro privacy policies separately Currently we have a link that purports to display the Mozilla privacy policy, but it actually shows a distro privacy policy if a distro has one configured, which is wrong. Fix this by showing both privacy policies separately.
(In reply to Michael Catanzaro from comment #11) > Created attachment 336184 [details] > Screenshot of proposed UI > > I decided to remove the "Uses Mozilla location services:" string because > we'd need a string freeze break in order to add a parallel "Problems are > reported to $DISTRO:" string. We could do that in master, but I don't think > it's needed. Hmmm, aren't we back to the issue I initially reported in this bug report with this approach?
No, we have one privacy policy underneath the geolocation service, another one underneath the ABRT service. I think it's clear enough. Going back to having a link to Mozilla privacy policy under ABRT would be the original bug.
(In reply to Michael Catanzaro from comment #16) > No, we have one privacy policy underneath the geolocation service, another > one underneath the ABRT service. I think it's clear enough. I am installing GNOME. I'm enabling/disabling GNOME's location service. The link brings me to a Mozilla page. It really isn't clear at all. This is what I was originally complaining about, and this is happening again with your proposed change. > Going back to having a link to Mozilla privacy policy under ABRT would be > the original bug. Being the one who reported the bug, I think I am well placed to say it wouldn't be.
(In reply to Alexandre Franke from comment #17) > I am installing GNOME. I'm enabling/disabling GNOME's location service. The > link brings me to a Mozilla page. It really isn't clear at all. This is what > I was originally complaining about, and this is happening again with your > proposed change. OK, I'll create an alternative patch that retains the label and adds a new label for ABRT privacy policy, but since it breaks string freeze and I don't think this is important enough for a freeze break I would only use it on master, and use this version for gnome-3-22. Sound good?
(In reply to Michael Catanzaro from comment #18) > OK, I'll create an alternative patch that retains the label and adds a new > label for ABRT privacy policy, but since it breaks string freeze and I don't > think this is important enough for a freeze break I would only use it on > master, and use this version for gnome-3-22. Sound good? Yes, thank you.
Created attachment 337230 [details] [review] privacy: Show Mozilla and distro privacy policies separately Patch for master