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So what happens when people in the EU go to my www.anthrobytes.com website?
Is my server breaking EU law because my server collects basic info about the
visit?
Serious question. Every server collects basic server activity information,
including IP addresses etc. Is this illegal under EU laws?
Again, there is no "phone home" feature. MadCap the company is not
collecting any information for or about you. Your installation of Feedback
is doing it about your docs on your server. It's not MadCap doing this -
it's your installation of your purchased copy of Feedback.
sharon
Sharon Burton
MadCap Software Product Consultant
Managing your content, one topic at a time
www.anthrobytes.com
951-369-8590
IM: sharonvburton -at- yahoo -dot- com
Twitter: sharonburton
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+sharon=anthrobytes -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+sharon=anthrobytes -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of quills -at- airmail -dot- net
Sent: Friday, September 25, 2009 3:14 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: Follow-up to question about getting feedback from users
The main point, that most are missing, seems to be that the privacy laws
of the U.S. are rather lax. If the EULA states that the software will
use Feedback and "Phone home" with the tracking information, that would
cover the U.S. customers, regardless of their druthers.
In the European Union, HOWEVER, they have MUCH stricter privacy laws,
laws that would place a great many practices of companies and
individuals in the U.S. under indictment if they were subject to those laws.
In other words, in the EU you cannot assume that the the "phone home"
feature of Feedback would be legal WITHOUT a positive and active
acceptance of that feature.
If it were in place in a .chm help file associated with a software
product, and installed in a computer in the EU, and it was found to be
active, then the company who made that help file, and MadCap would be
liable under EU law, and subject to both civil and criminal suites.
The moral outrage, the questions of ethical suitability are moot beside
the law.
Scott
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Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing Table of
Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help
2009 tips, tricks, and best practices. http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/
Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/
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You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as sharon -at- anthrobytes -dot- com -dot-
Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing Table of
Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help
2009 tips, tricks, and best practices. http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/
Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/
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You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-
