Remove Sentry (sentry.io)

(Copying this over from the pi-hole project)

Sentry (sentry.io) is included in the following list:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/hosts/master/hosts

It seems the author of this list is misinformed, as they include it under

# Block ads on Hotstar streaming app by @anudeepND

Sentry is not an advertising or analytics service. Hotstar simply uses Sentry to log client-side issues.

This is problematic for software developers due to the sheer nature of JavaScript used these days. If you can’t log errors in your client-side applications, you best case lose context for debugging issues and worst case any visibility that errors are even happening (and end up relying on twitter-ragefests).

I also see that New Relic is in here listed as an “adserver” which is also incorrect, and similar to Sentry. I see in @anudeepND’s original “adservers” it also lists our previous domain (getsentry.com).

References:

• https://sentry.io
• https://github.com/getsentry/sentry
• https://github.com/getsentry/raven-js

Nit: not sure how we’ve gotten to the point where everyone assumes any javascript hosted on a third-party domain is advertising

[DPTJKKVH]

@dcramer Well you got me there since it wasn’t as easy when we tried last year (where such contracts where already required but under the now soon obsolete General Data Protection Directive which has now become a Regulation). Or at least your email support had a hard time dealing with this.

Anyways thanks for the heads! Still one thing to consider since you use this argument a lot: It’s a big difference if a first party collects certain data or if a third party does mostly unnoticed in the background. It has a lot do with user expectations and most users aren’t very tech savvy.

Still @StevenBlack I think we fail to meet the expectations of many users if we arbitrarily unblock certain third party trackers because they collect data “for a good cause”. I think most users just want to block as much ads and trackers as possible without breaking functionality on their own side. I would keep sentry in the main block list but if not I’d highly recommend we start a “debugging” list or something. You already said it’s kinda dumb because it would be a small list that we couldn’t even properly differentiate by name since in the end those trackers do the same as all trackers (they collect data and track user behaviour). However it’d still be better than just unblocking it without giving the average user a chance to easily block those without everyone maintaining their own custom black list. Heck if you want I could try maintaining this extra list here since it’s really not that many services out there so it should be doable without too much effort.

[DPTJKKVH]

Will you create a blocklist specific for trackers like this?

I know @dcramer talks all nice but from a technical and legal standpoint thier porduct collects way more details than e.g. Google Analytics does. In EU you must close a data processing agreement with Google before using Google Analytics, a data protection contract that Sentry to my knowledge refuses to sign because they collect more data than can be reasonably expected from the user (passwords and such).

I’d say @dcramer should put his money where his mouth is and either sign European GDPR data protection agreements with their customers or block collection of such sensitive information entirely.

Until then we really need them on a block list. I know I can (and I will) block them and others to my best abilities with the custom black list but it would be a shame if everybody else had to do that as well.