Note
This is a work in progress and by no means comprehensive or necessarily meaningful. Just some notes.
@delano on July 16, 2025
I'm glad there's already an issue for this. Instant uninstall forever.
Inserting this feedback message into the conversation is invasive and inappropriate. Considering the many open questions around ethics and privacy in AI tools in general, earning and building trust as a new project is already an uphill battle. Prioritizing user consent is the absolute bare minimum that should have been considered before adding a feature like this; not opt-in by default data collection (that also poisons its own well, re: context pollution).
I can see that the functionality was mentioned in the release notes for 0.2.4 (there's no visibility into release notes changes so I'm just taking it at face value). The feedback system is mentioned in the README, which is good, although added after the fact and not with 0.2.4. I notice that External Telemetry is Opt-Out rather than Opt-In as well. Overall it gives the impression that privacy is at the very least an afterthought.
We genuinely need feedback from active users to build the right features
Is the need for feedback really more important than building user trust? The whole approach undermines both trust and the quality of the feedback.
@jonrichards on Apr 26, 2025
@wonderwhy-er there's a few things that I see as problematic here, but I would encourage you to do some research for yourself on why consumers want easy opt-out for all data collection, anonymous or otherwise, and why laws have been moving this direction for years now. The fact that you've stated you are working on providing an opt-out option shows me you have some understanding of this, however. But in the interest of good faith, here are some things that I see as an issue:
A user's data is theirs, and they should have the option to decide whether or not they want to share it.
- You have no stated data retention policy, who has access to the data, or how it is protected.
- You're sending data to a company who has a proven track record for violating user privacy, and tracking users around safeguards meant to prevent that capability. - The claim of anonymous data doesn't really negate this problem.
- The license change shows, at minimum, at least the thought for creating a pathway to monetize DesktopCommanderMCP. That moves things to now being able to make money off of user data, without the ability for them to easily prevent that.
I think the project is cool, and I hope it (and you) continue to have success. I understand that you take pride in your work (you should!) and that you want to improve the project - which benefits everyone who uses it. However, I reject the idea that giving users control over their data is mutually exclusive to that goal. One thing it does do, is result in people like myself choosing not to use it.