GNU bug report logs - #74218
[PATCH] Ask confirmation before sending region to search engine.

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Message #35 received at 74218 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Robert Pluim <rpluim <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 74218 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, me <at> eshelyaron.com, stefankangas <at> gmail.com,
 me <at> fabionatali.com
Subject: Re: bug#74218: [PATCH] Ask confirmation before sending region to
 search engine.
Date: Thu, 07 Nov 2024 12:49:47 +0200

> From: Robert Pluim <rpluim <at> gmail.com>
> Cc: Eshel Yaron <me <at> eshelyaron.com>,  74218 <at> debbugs.gnu.org,
>   stefankangas <at> gmail.com,  me <at> fabionatali.com
> Date: Thu, 07 Nov 2024 10:02:00 +0100
> 
> >>>>> On Thu, 07 Nov 2024 10:53:23 +0200, Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org> said:
> 
>     Eli> Also, does anyone have an opinion about asking for confirmation only
>     Eli> for regions that are large enough?  E.g., when the region is a single
>     Eli> word, do we want to ask for confirmation anyway?
> 
> The default for sending stuff to remote servers should be not to do it
> unless explicitly authorized, even if the amount of data is small: the
> submission itself provides data about your machine, IP, location etc.

We are talking about a command which is document as follows:

  (eww-search-words)

  Search the web for the text in the region.
  If region is active (and not whitespace), search the web for
  the text between region beginning and end.  Else, prompt the
  user for a search string.  See the variable ‘eww-search-prefix’
  for the search engine used.

It should be clear from this that a Web search engine is used, and
that the word or the region are sent to it.  Since the user invokes
this command, how is it reasonable not to do what the user requested?
If the user doesn't want to reveal details to the Internet, the user
can avoid invoking the command in the first place.

I feel that I'm missing something here.

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