I should add that both Vladimir and I understand that most people do not want to participate in remote monitoring because of the loss of privacy. Also, if I ever do write software to make remote monitoring more efficient, I will take great pains so that the software is not used to monitor people without their consent. That would probably mean assigning copyright in the software to an individual or a group with a reputation for humaneness and not releasing it under and open-source license.
I don’t think you need to be so concerned about your open source anti-procrastination software being adapted to nefarious uses. That horse has been out of the stable for a longtime.
To clarify: you want to oppose people using your software to illegally spy on people by making it illegal for them to use it? Shouldn’t they be indifferent to such limitations? Isn’t spying software a commodity anyway, with your software not optimized for the task?
I should have written in grandparent that I realize that some applications of the technique will tend to cause more harm than good, and left it at that. I just did not want to come across as clueless or uncaring about the harms.
It is not in general illegal in the U.S. for employers to monitor their employers, and your comment made me realize that I should see if I can apply monitoring software marketed to employers before writing my own software.
It is not in general illegal in the U.S. for employers to monitor their employers, and your comment made me realize that I should see if I can apply monitoring software marketed to employers before writing my own software.
Almost certainly. I know that such software is popular on things like oDesk, etc.
It occurs to me that you could get a lot of the lost privacy back by blurring the screen enough to make text illegible. As long as the other person can still recognize known procrastination activities in their blurred form (which should be pretty easy—sites have distinctive color schemes), it still works, but there’s less risk of accidentally revealing a private conversation or other secret.
I wouldn’t worry too much about your software being useful for spying on people without their consent. The standard countermeasure is to put a notice in a little window or on the system tray while it’s active. People who want to spy on others’ computers already have lots of software to choose from, both repurposed and purpose-built, so you’d have to go out of your way adding concealment features to make it competitive for that purpose. (That said, do be conscious of security: require a password to view, and use a vetted third party library to encrypt the login and the images.)
I should add that both Vladimir and I understand that most people do not want to participate in remote monitoring because of the loss of privacy. Also, if I ever do write software to make remote monitoring more efficient, I will take great pains so that the software is not used to monitor people without their consent. That would probably mean assigning copyright in the software to an individual or a group with a reputation for humaneness and not releasing it under and open-source license.
I don’t think you need to be so concerned about your open source anti-procrastination software being adapted to nefarious uses. That horse has been out of the stable for a long time.
To clarify: you want to oppose people using your software to illegally spy on people by making it illegal for them to use it? Shouldn’t they be indifferent to such limitations? Isn’t spying software a commodity anyway, with your software not optimized for the task?
I should have written in grandparent that I realize that some applications of the technique will tend to cause more harm than good, and left it at that. I just did not want to come across as clueless or uncaring about the harms.
It is not in general illegal in the U.S. for employers to monitor their employers, and your comment made me realize that I should see if I can apply monitoring software marketed to employers before writing my own software.
Almost certainly. I know that such software is popular on things like oDesk, etc.
It occurs to me that you could get a lot of the lost privacy back by blurring the screen enough to make text illegible. As long as the other person can still recognize known procrastination activities in their blurred form (which should be pretty easy—sites have distinctive color schemes), it still works, but there’s less risk of accidentally revealing a private conversation or other secret.
I wouldn’t worry too much about your software being useful for spying on people without their consent. The standard countermeasure is to put a notice in a little window or on the system tray while it’s active. People who want to spy on others’ computers already have lots of software to choose from, both repurposed and purpose-built, so you’d have to go out of your way adding concealment features to make it competitive for that purpose. (That said, do be conscious of security: require a password to view, and use a vetted third party library to encrypt the login and the images.)