Re: Git Privacy

> Junio C Hamano wrote:
>> "nick" <nick@nicholasjohnson.ch> writes:
>>
>>> However, I think it is worth the effort for the time zones. Is there any
>>> reason Git doesn't automatically convert local time to UTC in timestamps
>>> to prevent leaking the developer's time zone?
>>
>> Actually it is the other way around, if I understand correctly.
>>
>> Git could have been designed to discard that information like
>> previous version control systems, but it is another piece of
>> interesting information and made a conscious design decision to keep
>> it. In other words, "is there any reason why we do not discard the
>> information?" is a wrong question to ask in the context of VCS.
>
> I'll make my best case one last time and if it doesn't convince you,
> then I have nothing else to offer.
>
> Git leaks private information about developers publicly by design
> through its precise timestamps. You mentioned this makes it easier to
> deny copyright claims, but one could get more or less the same benefit
> without sacrificing privacy by rounding commit times to the nearest day.
> I'm not advocating making this behavior the default, just that
> developers be given the option to do it.
>
> The time zones reveal private information about developers and they
> don't even serve a use case, as far as I'm aware. A backwards-compatible
> way to solve this leak would be to convert timestamps to UTC by default
> and have a Git config option to revert back to the current behavior.