[Popcon-developers] Bug#707951: popularity-contest: please leak less private information

[Bernhard R. Link]

* Bill Allombert <Bill.Allombert at math.u-bordeaux1.fr> [130519 23:24]:
> > Doesn't relatime update atime when it is older than a day? So doesn't
> > relatime/strictatime just change from "second of last use before popcon
> > run" so "second of first use in a 24 hours window, but still exact to
> > a second"?
>
> Not exactly. It is only updated if it is 24 hour old.
> So you get the exact time of an event you cannot qualify. This is the stopped
> watch fallacy.

The worst case with strictatime is a program called less than once per
day, where popcon sends out total usage information. With relatime
exactly the same happens.

> > > It is important the vote determination is done in a centralised way.
> >
> > How does that prevent not sending timestamps?
>
> If you do not have the timestamps, then you have to rely on the client
> computation being correct.

So you can trust clients to collect correct timestamps, but not to
compare them? I do not understand.

        Bernhard R. Link