Audacity has turned evil
Jul. 4th, 2021 07:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madfilkentist posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
filkI'm not sure where the right place to post this is. I've made my personal journal mostly private, and this needs to get out to as many people as possible. A lot of filkers use Audacity for home audio production, so I think it's sufficiently on topic here.
Audacity, the popular audio editing application, is now Russian spyware.
What? you ask. Has madfilkentist gone mad? Read Audacity's desktop privacy notice.
First, the data controller for the app is "WSM Group with registered office at Moskovsky pr-t,40-1301, Kaliningrad, Russia, 236004." Second, the notice says WSM collects data including "Data necessary for law enforcement, litigation and authorities’ requests (if any)." Bear in mind that Audacity isn't an online service but a desktop application which you run on your own files. Bear in mind that Russia's laws don't care much about anyone's privacy, except as something to get around.
If the Russian government wants to run mass surveillance on Audacity users, for whatever crazy purpose, WSM Group will be within its stated bounds to provide access to your computer.
If you have Audacity, I recommend either getting rid of it or avoiding all updates. It's likely someone will fork the application, since it's open source and popular. This could take a while, though.
Audacity, the popular audio editing application, is now Russian spyware.
What? you ask. Has madfilkentist gone mad? Read Audacity's desktop privacy notice.
First, the data controller for the app is "WSM Group with registered office at Moskovsky pr-t,40-1301, Kaliningrad, Russia, 236004." Second, the notice says WSM collects data including "Data necessary for law enforcement, litigation and authorities’ requests (if any)." Bear in mind that Audacity isn't an online service but a desktop application which you run on your own files. Bear in mind that Russia's laws don't care much about anyone's privacy, except as something to get around.
If the Russian government wants to run mass surveillance on Audacity users, for whatever crazy purpose, WSM Group will be within its stated bounds to provide access to your computer.
If you have Audacity, I recommend either getting rid of it or avoiding all updates. It's likely someone will fork the application, since it's open source and popular. This could take a while, though.
