Is Audacity Spyware for Voice Actors? - There's a workaround, sort of.

The news is buzzing. Audacity updated its privacy policy and it's not good. But what should you do if you use audacity as your main recording software? I have a (sort of) solution.

Chapter markers:
00:00 - On the socials
00:46 - Update
01:45 - Privacy Policy
2:52 - Forking
3:40 - Telemetry
5:20 - Use an older version
6:23 - Recap

Links:
Audacity New Privacy Policy:

Reddit R/technology:

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[iamkneel]

You can use a fork, use an older version... or just block audacity from connecting to the internet with the firewall.

[Linuxdirk]

First Muse embedded telemetry and was caught and said “okay, we take it back”. Then they added a CLA basically saying “give us your code without you having copyright on this code”, and now they released this “we share your data with everyone who pays us enough for it” manifesto and will add telemetry and private user data collection anyways.

The “Audacity brand” will always be connected to this borderline illegal behavior and basically hostile takeover of the project.

There of course will be a fork and it will likely come from Debian because Muse also stated that it is illegal for people under the age of 13 to use Audacity with is a blatant violation of the GPL that allows EVERYONE to use the software.

[OfficialJuggaloJesus]

I hate how people act like they are so concerned about privacy but continue to use Facebook, YouTube, Google, Apple, and every other corporately owned website and product that there is.

[danmagoo]

The scare is way exaggerated, and does not affect the releases people actually use, even though the change to the TOC is obnoxious. Still, I am glad there is an outcry, to keep the owner on its toes and to encourage development of forks. I'll be switching when there's a good, available fork for end users, and until then I'm not really worried -- just sad about the direction is is taking. I've tried many other free or low-priced audio editing products, and for various reasons I still find Audacity (in most ways) the best of that class for voiceover work.

[louaguado]

Just don't upgrade to version 3. Or go offline before starting the program? There are already 2 forks available, Audacium and Tenacity

[ferniarex]

i installed audacity long ago, i never updated it because it dosent update automatically, the version is 2.3.3, am i good for now?

[tekanova]

Tell me that a paid equivalent to Audacity doesn't do the same information gathering.

[jerryg]

If enough people complain to the authors maybe they will change their policy...?

The problem with any software is most of the users would have no way to know if their data is being compromised by any type of software. Maybe adding a block in the firewall would help. An audio editing software would normally not need internet access unless for updates. The user would have to manually download and install newer versions to have updates.

[TroyKlein]

Downloaded ocenaudio yesterday. Seems to be behaving so far.

[florabee]

Use Ardour. Nobody should have been using Audacity for more than a training tool that came with a usb turntable to get your vinyl recordings onto a computer. Use Ardour.

[schoolofwonders]

Its funny that the current License that Audacity uses, prohibits them from disallowing 13 year olds from using it.

[diy-bp]

no Audacity isn't a spyware no audacity isn't selling your data and yes it's safe telemetry is used by so many apps even windows uses telemetry also adobe products and also google uses telemetry probably the browser your watching this video from and google probably collects way more data than audacity does nearly all apps use telemetry so don't be worried about audacity collecting data about itself and yes audacity does store your ip address but only for a 24 hour window after 24 hours the stored ip address is wiped and this only happens because its required by law so its dumb to think audacity is a spyware

[narrator-timothymckean]

Spreading misinformation and distrust is not helpful.