Why is auth required?

[bburtin]

Thanks for building KSM and releasing it to the community. KSM makes it easy for me to see which of my plugins are out of date.

I was surprised when the app asked for my KVR login credentials. Can someone explain why users need to log into KVR? The app scans your local plugins, then reconciles their versions against the latest versions. Seems like this is public information that shouldn't require auth?

[whyterabbyt]

Because it

"serves as a bridge between a KVR member's computer and their installed plugins and the KVR Audio website, automatically interfacing with a member's personalized MyKVR page and the KVR Product Database."

viewtopic.php?p=8860219#p8860219

[bburtin]

I read that too. I've never personalized my MyKVR page. I didn't even know that it existed until I installed KSM. Seems like KSM should be able to check the versions of my local plugins without requiring me to log in.

[jamcat]

Also, consider that KSM is a tool meant to serve the KVR member community, so everyone who uses it should have a KVR user account. I think that is a reasonable requirement for this free tool.

[Tj Shredder]

KVR needs to know what plugins you use to sell this information anonymously to their advertisers. How else could they possibly pay for the development…
If privacy is a concern, simply don’t use it…
Or start your own open source project that could still access KVR’s database eventually, or even better scan all vendors directly… Which could be a privacy nightmare on another level…

[jamcat]

That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. A few reasons why: 1. The developers that you’ve bought plugins from already know that you bought plugins from them. 2. Popularity statistics are public for every plugin in the KVR product database; it’s hard to sell free information. 3. KVR ads don’t appear to be individually targeted. 4. KSM/MyKVR participants are self-selecting, thus rendering biased data which is unscientific and therefore of limited value.