Right, but they specifically listed "automatic update phone-home" as something to be supressed too. As well as some other things that aren't ads; the proposal is about "telemetry" not just ads.
And the proponent of the standard got in an argument with homebrew about supporting the env variable. (Although not necessarily for suppressing automatic updates? Which might be a violation of the standard, to suggest you support it, but only support it incompletely?)
Perhaps the proposed standard needs some more consultation and fine-tuning (as is common with standards for a reason) before trying to strong-arm projects into adopting it.
The person you replied to didn't say that. And updating a package manager manually works fine. I consider forced updates and tracking different problems though.
The OP says that. That is the proposal in the OP that I thought we were discussing here, is why I was discussing it. The proposal in the OP for `DO_NOT_TRACK` does consider them part of the same problem all to be controlled by a `DO_NOT_TRACK` setting.
It may be that both you and I think that's not a great idea, or at least needs more fine-tuning as a proposed standard.
> This is a proposal for a single, standard environment variable that plainly and unambiguously expresses LACK OF CONSENT by a user of that software to any of the following:
> ad tracking
> usage reporting, anonymous or not
> automatic update phone-home
> crash reporting
> non-essential-to-functionality requests of any kind to the creator of the software or other tracking services
I thought we were discussing the comment you quoted and replied to. It has a different but similar suggestion. And Homebrew automatic updates aren't needed anyway.
I don't think fine tuning would help. People who think they're entitled to collect user data without consent don't want to make it easy to opt out.
You literally just said you considered them very different problems? But now you say you think they should both be handled per the OP with a single flag, and you're opposed to both of them on the same grounds -- doesn't sound like you do consider them very different problems?
This seems like one of those internet debates where what we're talking about keeps changing in pursuit of "winning" rather than enlightening.
And the proponent of the standard got in an argument with homebrew about supporting the env variable. (Although not necessarily for suppressing automatic updates? Which might be a violation of the standard, to suggest you support it, but only support it incompletely?)
Perhaps the proposed standard needs some more consultation and fine-tuning (as is common with standards for a reason) before trying to strong-arm projects into adopting it.