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

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From: Robert Pluim <rpluim <at> gmail.com>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 74218 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, me <at> eshelyaron.com, stefankangas <at> gmail.com, me <at> fabionatali.com
Subject: bug#74218: [PATCH] Ask confirmation before sending region to search engine.
Date: Thu, 07 Nov 2024 12:03:20 +0100

>>>>> On Thu, 07 Nov 2024 12:49:47 +0200, Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org> said:

    >> 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.

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

    Eli>   (eww-search-words)

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

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

    Eli> I feel that I'm missing something here.

And so am I. Why are we discussing adding a confirmation to an
explicit request from the user? Or is the intent to leave it as 'off',
but allow customizing it to 'ask'?

Robert
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