Roughed-in Privacy guidelines:<div><a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Review#Privacy">http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Review#Privacy</a></div><div><br></div><div>These privacy guidelines are adapted from the Plugin guidelines regarding "phoning home". Please comment so we can revise/improve, as necessary.</div>
<div><br></div><div>I've renamed "Theme Settings and Data Security" as "Security and Privacy", with "Theme Settings and Data Security" and "Privacy" being sub-sections under this guideline.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Thanks,</div><div><br></div><div>Chip<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Mar 8, 2012 at 1:53 PM, Chip Bennett <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:chip@chipbennett.net">chip@chipbennett.net</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div class="gmail_quote"><div class="im">On Thu, Mar 8, 2012 at 1:38 PM, Trent Lapinski <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:trent@cyberchimps.com" target="_blank">trent@cyberchimps.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Woh.<br>
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It is truly a shame you guys have already made the decision to restrict PressTrends use from WordPress.org without any discussion, or reason.<br></blockquote><div><br></div></div><div>Nothing is being restricted. You are free to use PressTrends in your WPORG repository-hosted Theme. We're merely stipulating that you have to *disclose* to end users that the Theme is using this service, and that you have to allow end users to *opt-in* to use of this service. </div>
<div class="im">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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There is absolutely nothing wrong with knowing how many people are using your themes, and what version numbers they are using. In fact, I wish WordPress.org itself provided this kind of data publicly.<br></blockquote><div>
<br></div></div><div>I refer you to <a href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html" target="_blank">Free Software philosophy</a> [<b>emphasis </b>added]:</div><div><br></div></div><blockquote style="margin:0 0 0 40px;border:none;padding:0px">
<div class="gmail_quote"><div><span style="line-height:20px;color:rgb(53,56,42);font-size:16px;font-family:FreeSans,clean,sans-serif">The freedom to run the program means the freedom for any kind of person or organization to use it on any kind of computer system, for any kind of overall job and purpose, <b>without being required to communicate about it with the developer or any other specific entity</b>. In this freedom, <b>it is the <em style="font-style:italic">user's</em> purpose that matters, not the <em style="font-style:italic">developer's</em> purpose</b>; you as a user are free to run the program for your purposes, and if you distribute it to someone else, she is then free to run it for her purposes, but <b>you are not entitled to impose your purposes on her</b>.</span></div>
</div></blockquote><div class="gmail_quote"><div><br></div><div>Simply put: you, as a developer, do not have the right to this information without the user's informed consent. </div><div class="im"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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There is absolutely no private information that is garnered from PressTrends.<br></blockquote><div><br></div></div><div>From the <a href="http://presstrends.io/privacy" target="_blank">PressTrends privacy policy</a>:</div>
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<blockquote style="margin:0 0 0 40px;border:none;padding:0px"><div class="gmail_quote"><div><span style="color:rgb(85,85,85);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:20px">Themes containing the PressTrends tracking code track the following information only: number of posts published, number of comments, blog name, theme version, site url, and the number of plugins.</span></div>
</div></blockquote><div class="gmail_quote"><div><br></div><div>Those data, in that combination, ARE potentially personally identifiable. </div><div class="im"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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This isn't a privacy issue, and the metrics it does gather are extremely valuable to theme developers.<br></blockquote><div><br></div></div><div>Whether such data constitute a privacy concern is a matter for each end user to decide for him/herself. </div>
<div class="im">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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The only thing PressTrends "tracks" is theme activations of what theme version number of the theme is being activated, the average number of posts, comments, and plugins, and abandonment rates telling you if people have stopped using the theme after 30-days.<br>
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I have absolutely no problem disclosing this better in our documentation, but to make it an option that has to be enabled makes the data it does gather pretty much useless.<br></blockquote><div><br></div></div><div>Useless to whom: the end user, or the developer? If the service is useful to the end user, then make the usefulness argument to end users. If the service is *not* useful to the end user, then it absolutely should not be enabled by default.</div>
<div class="im">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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It enables us to see if our users are upgrading their themes to the latest versions, and gives us insight into those who stop using our themes.<br>
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Having to turn PressTrends off by default and then asking users to enable it as a theme option makes the data useless because you will only get activation numbers from people who enable the theme option which means they are already using and configuring your theme.<br>
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If this is truly a requirement, this should be in the theme review guidelines.<br></blockquote><div><br></div></div><div>Certainly. I will copy the <a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/about/guidelines/" target="_blank">similar policy wording from the Plugin repository</a> (see #7: No "phoning home"), and find the appropriate place for it in the Theme guidelines. </div>
<div><br></div><div>Thanks,</div><div><br></div><div>Chip</div></div>
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