New Audacity fork - less tracking, better privacy

Lounge
1

Sorry if this is too off topic for the VCV forums, I know a lot of people here are using Audacity.

Turns out they are now run by a Russian based company and are introducing some IP address and data collection even though it’s an offline app. They’re being up front about it in their privacy policy and licensing, but I still feel uneasy about it.

There’s a new fork by a cybersecurity analyst that does not include the telemetry parts. Current name that’s winning is AudioBakery.

4 Likes
2

Occasional user here - do I need to ditch my copy of Audacity 2.3.2.0 ?

3

not that it makes it “ok” or “bad” or… But almost all commercial software does this, including osx, windows, many others. Hopefully audacity is at least offering the standard privacy “best practices” (which are legally mandated in various states and countries):

  • Ability for users to “opt out” of all telemetry data.
  • Personally identifying information (like IP) only kept for less than 30 days.
  • Access to PII tightly restricted.
  • Limitations of selling/transferring information from telemetry.

From some of the conversation I wonder if they do offer the option to log out, etc… I don’t know the answer to that.

3 Likes
4

Thanks for the heads-up! I thought Audacity was 100% open source software. Do you have any references to it being run by a Russian company? Thanks.

Edit: Nevermind, it says so in the Vice article. It looks like we should just be using the new fork, when/if in place. Same situation as OpenOffice → LibreOffice, and truecrypt → its offspring.

5

2 :slight_smile:

6

Hope this won’t happen to VCV Rack. Wouldn’t like it if I write a song and there’s an ad for a new Behringer Clone between Chorus and Verse…

7

The passion and commitment required to see a project through year-after-year doesn´t usually lend itself well to working on derivative work. In addition you need to establish the project under a new name to avoid copyright issues.

8

Of course they could be lying or could change their mind, but they are saying they won’t do this. As I said, most commercial software does have some telemetry, but it is very rare to use it to generate ads in app. Well, for desktop software it is very rare. It’s common for free cell phone apps.

9

Worth a read.

2 Likes
10

Nope.

1 Like
11

I read all these news like overreaction and white noise.

1 Like
12

Here’s some more important news that everyone should be redirecting their attention to:

9 Likes
13

Ooh tell me more about this new Behringer clone. Is it the 2600 VCO because I’ve seen that?

14

I’m waiting til someone clones the Behringer clone …

1 Like
15

Moog could bang out a Deepmind 12 for four times the cost and call it the “Moog Sheeple”

1 Like
16

Awesome! Thanks!

17

Haha, thunder bay. Amazing.

18

Understood. Bob’s left the building. It’s just another company.

1 Like
19

Drumroll… Sneed!!

Personally I switched to Audacium, but I havent done my homework and looked into it too hard. I just searched my package manager for alternatives to Audacity.

1 Like