RE: in search for better tools

["Sharon Burton" <sharon -at- anthrobytes -dot- com>]

Then you as the help author should make sure you don't violate any local
laws when you install and configure Feedback. Perhaps you should even think
about letting your users know that you are doing this. I would imagine that
you should be aware of any contractual obligations you may be under. 

Many companies use Feedback and find it useful. I suppose they are compliant
with whatever local laws may be in effect and perhaps they let their users
know about Feedback and what it's doing. Really, it's up to the people who
purchase it and install it and configure it to use it in compliance with
whatever laws or contracts they may be under. 

If you don't like the product, then don't use it. If it doesn't meet your
needs or upsets you in some way, then don't purchase it. It may not be the
right tool for everyone, just as all tools may not meet everyone's needs. 

Without Feedback and the Feedback extensions enabled in Flare, Flare help
systems do no reporting to anyone. I wanted to clarify that distinction. 

For an example of the sort of data that all web servers collect and report,
go to http://www.anthrobytes.com/webstat/usage_200911.html. Yes, we can see
IP addresses but it helps us not at all to find out who or what computer
went to my website. I can see that 3 people searched for "rabbit scribe" to
get to my website but I have no idea who did that. My web hosting company
uses Webalizer for this reporting. 


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: robert -dot- lauriston -at- gmail -dot- com [mailto:robert -dot- lauriston -at- gmail -dot- com] On
Behalf Of Robert Lauriston
Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 8:43 AM
To: sharon -at- anthrobytes -dot- com
Cc: GILLIOTTE Valérie; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: in search for better tools

You're repeating the same irrelevant information you did when this
first came up. We're not talking about tracking what users do on
*your* Web server, we're talking about snooping on what they do on
*their* computers.

Say you're a technical writer creating, let's say, .chm online help
for your company's software product. If you enable Flare's feedback
feature, when one of your company's customers installs the product,
the online help will track the topics viewed, search terms, and
context-sensitive help calls, and periodically send you a log, without
asking the user to opt in.

In some places, e.g.,Europe, this is a violation of privacy laws.

The send is traceable back to the user via the IP, even if the MadCap
feedback server discards that information.

When the online help sends the log, it will, in many cases, trigger a
security software alert, which will reflect badly on your company and
may violate its contract with the customer.

http://forums.madcapsoftware.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=7564

http://webhelp.madcapsoftware.com/flare/Content/Feedback/Feedback_Explorer_I
nternal_Versus_External.htm

2009/12/9 Sharon Burton <sharon -at- anthrobytes -dot- com>:
> I work part time for MadCap Software.
>
> To clarify about Feedback Server - the only tracking that Feedback does is
> the exact same usage stats that all websites also track. Nothing is sent
to
> MadCap Software, unless you the help author have opted to use MadCap's
> secure server. You the help author can install Feedback on your server and
> the general usage stats go to your server. ...


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