Wordpress 2.3 was released today, but does it spy on users?
Wordpress has released a new version of their Blogging software. WordPress 2.3 was released today with lots of exciting new features including tagging, plugin update notification, URL handling improvements, and much more.
I’m not going to be installing it just yet.
Some bloggers are reporting that WordPress 2.3 spies on users. There is a discussion taking place on Google Groups.
According to whatithink the “update service” sends information such as you blog URL, the version of the various plugins installed, server variables etc back to WordPress.org.
There is a bit of debate taking place on Slashdot. See: WordPress 2.3 Does Not Spy On Users.
Kirk takes a reasonable look at both sides of the issue: WordPress 2.3 Privacy Issue? Your opinions please.
With all this being said I probably won’t be switching to the new version anytime soon mainly because I want to make sure it is bug free before I switch.
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32 responses so far ↓
Wrote: Sep 25, 2007 at 1:36 pm
WordPress v 2.3 doesn’t spy on users, it’s actually a development tool used to report back server specs and related software issues…
Its actually a wise choice from a development status as it lets the WordPress Developers know of any problems that may arise from their new CMS; so that they can have a resolution before its reported.
Its not collecting information on users, passwords or any thing of the sorts but just the specifics as far as server environments…
Like what Version of Apache, PHP, Linux or Unix Servers, is Safe Mod on or off etc..
What Plugins you may be using and the blog URL.
It’s a wise choice to squash any bugs and insure the compatibility of WordPress with all variations and server environments.
Users that wish to no use this new feature can simply turn it off.
Shawn DesRochers
Wrote: Sep 25, 2007 at 3:33 pm
I don’t think anyone involved with WordPress is interested in spying. Our release announcement plainly states that your blog URL and version info is sent to api.wordpress.org. There’s nothing personal there though, and on the server side it’s governed by WordPress.org’s strict privacy policy.
Wrote: Sep 25, 2007 at 3:38 pm
Thanks Matt for commenting. I appreciate your posting with a take on this. Because of all the debate ranging has Wordpress thought about making a post on its blog to clear this all up?
Wrote: Sep 25, 2007 at 5:55 pm
I’m in the same boat with 2.3 as I will likely hold off for a little bit to see if there are any issues reported. Although I will likely install a copy of it on my local XAMPP environment so I can start doing a little testing.
Wrote: Sep 25, 2007 at 9:00 pm
Hi Rose,
I’ve been testing 2.3 since beta 3 any bugs that might be found are in plugins that depend on the old category related DB structure. If a category type plugin tries to query the new DB directly, it will break. If it uses the API then it should work fine
The bottom line here is that for WP bloggers who aren’t loaded up with category specific plugins and widgets and/or have a highly customized theme and/or tons of tags from UTW, Simple Tagging or Jerome’s Keywords etc (and depend on the tag management UI thereof), then the upgrade will be relatively painless.
And thanks for the link! Much appreciated.
Wrote: Sep 26, 2007 at 4:13 am
I don’t think I will be upgrading too. At least, not now. Mine’s doing well and don’t want unwanted headaches for the moment.
Wrote: Sep 26, 2007 at 12:39 pm
Once you do update, let me know what you think of it and I’ll make my decision based on that.
Wrote: Sep 26, 2007 at 8:51 pm
I won’t be switch right away either. Let other people get the bugs worked out first.
Wrote: Sep 26, 2007 at 11:47 pm
Yes Sweety and I even downloaded it and built a new blog .
Wrote: Sep 27, 2007 at 12:23 am
Thanks for commenting Kirk and I think I’ll still wait for a bit.
Wissam, Thank you for dropping by my blog, but don’t call me sweety. Please!
Grace and Steven my thoughts too. lol
Wrote: Sep 27, 2007 at 12:33 am
It’s all about wordpress ^_~ it was an expression of my happiness .
Wrote: Sep 27, 2007 at 12:49 am
Sure. lol
Wrote: Sep 27, 2007 at 9:59 am
I upgraded on the day of release (oops). I’m not to worried about spying though anyway. there are thousands of wordpress blogs out there, I doubt they will find any useful info about mine. lol
Wrote: Sep 27, 2007 at 12:14 pm
I think I will wait a bit too before upgrading so any bugs can be ironed out, when I know it’s stable I will use the automatic upgrade plugin to make things a little smoother and work out how to import the UTW tags so I can keep all the goodness of a tag page.
thanks for visiting my commentluv plugin post!
Wrote: Sep 28, 2007 at 1:24 pm
I do want to update my blog, but I am a little cautious. As others have said, I would prefer the bugs to be worked out on other blogs.
Wrote: Sep 29, 2007 at 3:32 pm
(emphasis added.)
I’m not quite sure how Matt can type that with a straight face considering the privacy policy didn’t exist until the issue was Slashdotted and in an effort to back-pedal, the Automattic privacy policy was copy/pasted onto the site.
Strict privacy policy? More like trying to spin the situation in his favour.
I have nothing against WP software itself, but sometimes Matt can really stick a whole shoe store in his mouth.
Instead of telling people to go fork themselves (which is precisely what he did on the hackers list), he should listen to the people asking for a way to disable this feature without needing to install a third party plugin. It should have been an option from the get-go.
-KB
Wrote: Sep 29, 2007 at 3:49 pm
Geez Kissing Bandit I took some time reading that blog you linked to and it looks like some anti Matt blog. I don’t know Matt personally. Matt Mullenweg created WordPress. I like Wordpress. So with that said- thanks for coming out.
Wrote: Sep 29, 2007 at 3:57 pm
Rose, maybe there’s more to Matt and WordPress than you’re aware of.
Wrote: Sep 29, 2007 at 5:06 pm
Mike- Maybe I don’t care.
Wrote: Sep 29, 2007 at 5:29 pm
Viola I sure will. If I don’t mail you- Shawn will.
Wrote: Sep 29, 2007 at 8:14 pm
It does look like the anti-Matt brigade has invaded your blog, I’m sorry about that. They seem to have something against me personally, and they congregate around that “wank” blog. Two things: the Automattic privacy policy has been adopted by dozens of companies and websites, that’s why it was put under Creative Commons, so other folks didn’t have to spend thousands of dollars on lawyers to get a fairly standard document. Since it’s gotten positive reviews for well over a year now it seemed like a good base for WordPress.org. Secondly, I’ve never told anyone to “fork off.” Some malicious folks often try to twist my words and make false assumptions. Fact checking through my ultimately-accessible contact information would be too hard for them, I suppose.
Wrote: Sep 30, 2007 at 2:31 am
Haven’t upgraded yet. I’ll probably wait a bit. I might just be lazy but I’m not sure yet heh.
Wrote: Sep 30, 2007 at 1:19 pm
Beware. Long wordy comment
Some of you folks might be interested in the WordPress Automatic Upgrades plugin by Keith D’souza (pay no attention to the version number in the link, it’s 0.7 now). I helped do some of the testing on it and have been using it successfully now through several upgrades. It cuts the time by 3/4’s and better plus no FTP involved.The plugin takes care of everything in a step by step process. Now I may have the experience to do an upgrade manually which is something I believe every WP owner should know but I use this on a regular basis in fact I did the upgrade to 2.3 using this.
Just some advice:
Before you upgrade to 2.3 make absolutely sure your theme (contact the author) and plugins especially are compatible with the new version. You can check the 2.3 plugin compatibility list and if your plugin(s) isn’t listed, check with the author. Any plugin that depended on the old category structure (and queries the DB directly) isn’t going to work and any of the tagging plugins like UTW, Jerome’s Keywords or Simple Tagging are not compatible. You can import the tags used by these plugins into the new WP 2.3 DB. There’s also a few plugins out to control these new WP tags since there’s no interface built in.
End of long wordy post.
Wrote: Sep 30, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Matt I have been in your shoes. No need to apologize.
Wrote: Sep 30, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Not a problem.
Maybe it’s because you’re a liar, Matt. How many times do people have to prove that to you? Is it ever goign to sink in? Do we need to it yet again? (And, no we won’t do it here as it appears Rose is not interested in this discussion.)
It’s strange that you mention fact checking. I’ve yet to see one thing Wank state to be incorrect but yet I see you do it all the time.
(This comment has been edited. No personal attacks here boys.)
Wrote: Sep 30, 2007 at 1:57 pm
May I then ask you do the same to Matt’s comment then, please?
Wrote: Sep 30, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Mike it ends here. Whatever issues you have with Matt I suggest you take somewhere else. My blog is not the place for it.
Wrote: Sep 30, 2007 at 6:01 pm
I’d just like to point out that Matt, in a recent (last month or so) email to the WordPress dev mailing list, said this:
He didn’t say “fork off” word for word, but he did suggest that leaving and forking WordPress would be an alternative for people who didn’t appreciate Automattic’s data-gathering.
Not that I condone Dr. Mike’s actions in any way. He’s proven himself an immature idiot with an apparent vendetta against Matt and WordPress, but I’d just like to point out this quote of Matt’s.
Wrote: Sep 30, 2007 at 6:33 pm
Telling someone to fork wordpress and telling them to forkoff is two different things in my opinion.
Robin thank you for commenting, but I hope this debate with Matt ends here.
Wrote: Sep 30, 2007 at 6:38 pm
First off, I have nothing against Matt personally. Never met the guy and really don’t care whether I ever do or not.
Next, it’s not the anti-Matt brigade. The website merely points out the problems and skirting of said problems when it comes to WordPress as a whole. Terribly sorry if most of that leads back to, or seems to lead back to Matt personally.
Funny enough, in Matt’s comment, he skirted the fact that the “strict privacy policy” sprang up overnight the moment people started calling him on the unnecessary collection of data and asked him for a better response than “it could be useful in the future” to justify it.
Frankly, I wouldn’t have said anything if he didn’t write that comment with such haughtiness — as though that policy has been there for ages (or, at least, before he decided to add a phone home function to the WP codebase).
Something along the lines of “we’ve just implemented a new strict privacy policy” would have been more accurate under the circumstances.
While you may not have said “fork off”, Matt, in those exact words, you made it very clear that’s what anyone needed to do if they didn’t like how you handled the software. Robin explains it nicely.
-KB
Wrote: Sep 30, 2007 at 6:40 pm
Sorry Rose,
It appears our comments went in at the same time and was simply seeking to get my word in since I kind of started this heated debate.
In any event, that’s my last say in the matter.
-KB
Wrote: Sep 30, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Ok time to turn comments off. Party is over. Go home everyone. Nothing to see here. Move alomg boys and girls.