Etcher: Option in settings to disable ad tracking (Revived)

[EpicLPer]

• Etcher version: Latest and ongoing
• Operating system and architecture: Any
• Image flashed: Doesn't matter
• Do you see any meaningful error information in the DevTools? No need to.

This is Take 2 on an issue that has wrongfully been closed and locked now. We have the right to fight for our privacy, if an issue goes offtopic there are mods who are able to steer it into the right direction, no need to lock it directly. The issue in question is #2599 .

Etcher is currently showing tracking ads without the users consent and are also tracking people located in the EU which is against the GDPR, as pointed out by many other users on the old now wrongfully closed issue. They also do not show any warnings about this when showing those ads.

All we ask for is an option to turn this ad-tracking off, nothing more, yet Balena ignores such requests happily as of now. If this issue is once again ignored the GDPR will be informed of this action.

[petrosagg]

@EpicLPer the issue was closed because the question was answered. The lock happened 16 days later after the issue went offtopic.

But to recap, the "tracking ads" are actually useful projects relevant to the community. We are not interested in removing them as they help both the users and us to continue fund the development of etcher.

Etcher is currently showing tracking ads without the users consent and are also tracking people located in the EU which is against the GDPR

Collecting anonymous data without consent is fine under GDPR. We have no intention of breaking any law and we have consulted our legal team to ensure that. You can my detailed comment here https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/issues/2766#issuecomment-531437542

[rradar]

This is take 3 @EpicLPer

Use usbimager which takes 250kb of your disk (etcher does take almost half a gigabyte with all bloat/ad/spy/xyz-ware) and have the same features (minus tracking/spying/ads...) but flashing your images completely privately now :tada: