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Another way would be to put something in the footers of your help file that
non-identifiable usage statistics are being collected.
As I said many times, if you feel you should let your users know, I think
you should do that. Mike suggested one way. I bet there's many others,
depending on your users and workflow.
Glad that's all cleared up. Mike knows far more than I do about 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 Robert Lauriston
Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2009 10:57 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: MacCap feedback - surreptitious reporting confirmed
For easy future reference, here's MadCap's recommended workaround and
explanation:
"... generate two .chm files, one with [feedback enabled] and one
without. Then create an installer that politely asks which one the
user would like to install. As to adding an opt-out to a .chm file,
the format is locked down by Microsoft so the only way to do such a
thing would be to add a new .dll file that would have to be installed
with the .chm file and registered on the machine. That would be a HUGE
amount of overhead for something that would be much easier to do via
the installer option I mentioned above. Or, the only way to do it
without a .dll would be to add an opt-out to every single topic - not
realistic at all."
On Fri, Sep 25, 2009 at 8:19 AM, Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com>
wrote:
> I'm surprised to find that in fact local help (.chm etc.) generated by
> MadCap Flare with the feedback feature enabled does collect data on
> topics viewed, search terms, and CSH calls without getting an opt-in
> from the user:
>
> "... we have some very high security end-users with very strict
> policies. The workaround solution we found was just to instruct users
> who do not want to submit feedback to block our secure URL."
>
>http://forums.madcapsoftware.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=7564
>
> http://webhelp.madcapsoftware.com/flare/Content/Feedback/Feedback_Explorer_I
nternal_Versus_External.htm
>
> Yeah, this isn't the user's driver's license or credit card, but it is
> information about the user. Collecting it is a violation of privacy,
> and in some places illegal.
>
> Since it's being sent over the internet, the data *is* traceable back
> to the user via the IP.
>
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Are you looking for one documentation tool that does it all? Author,
build, test, and publish your Help files with just one easy-to-use tool.
Try the latest Doc-To-Help 2009 v3 risk-free for 30-days at: http://www.doctohelp.com/
Help & Manual 5: The all-in-one help authoring tool. True single- sourcing --
generate 8 different formats and as many different versions as you need
from just one project. Fast and intuitive. http://www.helpandmanual.com/
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