Audacity, the well-known open source audio editing software, was named spyware in a report, due to changes to the privacy policy, which reveal that the tool is collecting data about its users and sharing it with other companies, as well as sending the data. to Russia.
Audacity was acquired by the Muse Group in May, a company that also controls Ultimate Guitar, MuseScore and Tonebridge. Since the purchase of Audacity, changes have been discovered in online support documents indicating that it is used to collect data about its users.
The Audacity Privacy Policy page was updated on June 2, reports Fosspost, with some additions relating to the collection of personal data. In particular, the application collects a series of details relating to Mac users.
The data list includes the operating system and version, the user's country based on their IP address, non-fatal error codes and messages, crash reports, and the processor in use. Under the data collected “for lawful application”, the software collects “data necessary for law enforcement, litigation and requests from authorities (if any)”, although it does not specify what data is collected in such cases.
IP addresses are stored "only identifiable for one day", stored as a hash changed daily. The hash is archived for a year before deletion, although the company also claims that the variant that customizes it "is not stored in any database and cannot be recovered after it has been changed."
One day of storage is considered sufficient for a government agency to identify a user, with sufficient resources and legal authority.
The data is said to be stored within the European Economic Area, although the policy also mentions that the company "is required from time to time to share your personal data with our head office in Russia and our external consultant in the States. United ".
Personal data may also be shared with a long list of entities, including "consultants" and "prospective buyers", as well as with law enforcement, regulators, courts and other third parties.
While the app was previously available for all ages under the GPL, the privacy policy also says for people under the age of 13 "please do not use the app".
This is considered a violation of the GPL license under which Audacity is published.
