Audacity is one of the best known and used free and open source audio editors that we can find on the net. This sound editor has been with us since 2000, and in the 21 years he has been with us he has only gotten better. Unfortunately, a couple of months ago we found out that MuseGroup had bought this program, and it didn’t take a few days to see the first results of that purchase: the telemetry had reached the program.
As soon as the program was acquired, MuseGroup indicated that Audacity was going to start collecting user data in order to be able to continue developing the program, and to do it in the best possible way. It didn’t take long for the community to disagree with that decision, and criticism forced the company to postpone its plans.
Now, MuseGroup has updated the program’s privacy notice with new terms that, unsurprisingly, have caused controversy again. And it is not for less, since that indicates not only that they will continue with the collection of data, but also that they will be able to transfer it to third parties.
MuseGroup may transfer your data for “legal issues”
Initially, the company’s plans were to collect user data so that it could continue to improve Audacity and learn information about how the program was used. Some of the data collected are:
- Operating system version.
- Country based on IP (and therefore IP).
- Name and version of the operating system.
- CPU.
- Non-fatal error codes and messages.
- Critical error memory dumps.
Now, under these same conditions, Audacity will begin to collect other types of information collected within a new section called “legal issues.” The information the company has provided on this is very vague. Unlike the previous point, which allows us to know exactly what is collected, now we can only know that MuseGroup wants to collect ” the data necessary to apply the law, data necessary for trials and the data required by the authorities “. But we don’t know exactly what this data is. Personal information? Passwords collected from our PC? It is not known.
And not only that, but, although the data is stored on servers in the European Union, MuseGroup may share it with the United States and with Russia .
Audacity now has the most expensive price of all
Unfortunately, we can now say that Audacity is no longer free. Although it is true that we can continue to download it at no cost, in reality by using it we are paying with our data, with our privacy. Nothing good brought about the purchase of MuseGroup, and sadly, there is likely to be even more bad news to discover in the coming months.
Luckily, on the web we can find a wide variety of alternatives to Audacity to be able to continue editing our audio quickly and easily. And most importantly, alternatives that do not take our data so blatantly, even if we have to pay for them.
