RE: Follow-up to question about getting feedback from users

["Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>]

Sharon Burton wrote:
 
> I appreciate the apology. Thank you. I've always respected your
> contributions to this and other lists and so was a little frustrated
about
> the comment. We're cool.
> 
> The failure to see the problem is because what you and other people
are
> saying Feedback does is not in fact what it does. There is no
violation of
> privacy because at no time is your privacy invaded.
> 
> Again, nothing is installed on your computer. Nothing is sent. No
personal
> information is collected. Every website server in the world collects
at
> least what Feedback collects.

That's not what you suggested earlier, and it's not what this statement,
which Robert Lauriston found on the MadCap site, strongly suggests: "The
Feedback Server, not only tracks reader activity on Web-based Help, but
also on desktop documentation, such as HTML Help and DotNetHelp." 

You keep comparing it to the server stats collected when I visit a
website -- that's fine and valid, if Feedback is collecting data from
visitors to browser-based help pages hosted on a web server. It's merely
adding a bit of value to what's already collected anyway. 

But your earlier description and the MadCap quote above both suggest
that if I install a MadCap-created .chm file on my PC as part of the XYZ
Software application, then data about my usage of that .chm file will be
transmitted without my knowledge to the XYZ Software tech pubs
department. 

If that's not correct, good -- glad to hear it. I hope that MadCap will
correct and clarify its information about Feedback.

If it _is_ correct, your protestations that it's not "personal
information" and that "nothing identifiable about you is collected"
don't make it all right. 

If I'm visiting the XYZ Software website, I'm "on their property" -- if
I don't want them knowing about my visit, then I shouldn't visit. But if
XYZ Software wants me to share data with them about what I'm doing on my
own PC, they need to ask permission. 

Jeez, even Microsoft understands this. :-)


Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
------






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