Re: Git Privacy

From: brian m. carlson <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net>
Date: Jul 18, 2023, 21:59 UTC
Message-ID: <ZLcLQZfZK+QnG5cx@tapette.crustytoothpaste.net>
In-Reply-To: <CU3Z2NYP6BGG.1PQ6S5AF60XX6@anonymous>

On 2023-07-16 at 23:07:06, nick wrote:

Show 8 quoted lines

> nick wrote:
> > 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.
> 
> Come to think of it, even if timezones were converted to UTC by default,
> time of day would still leak information about a user's likely timezone.

This is true. My .signature indicates where I'm located (which isn't a secret), but I have `TZ=UTC` set in my shell config. You'll notice that my timestamp is +0000 in all my commits. I keep a reasonably regular daytime schedule, so it's easy to tell what my hours are.

Show 5 quoted lines

> So based on that and keeping in mind Git's desire for strong
> backwards-compatibility, I'm amending my proposal to just a standalone
> Git option which would allow for forging timestamp and timezone
> information, with timestamp information being forgeable to varying
> degrees of granularity.

One thing I've wanted Git to do (which I'm not sure is backwards compatible) is to set the timezone to -0000 (instead of +0000) to indicate that the user has intentionally refused to set the timezone, much like the equivalent syntax in RFC 5322. I think that's a fine choice for lots of reasons, but it prevents people from accidentally concluding that I live in Reykjavík and expecting a response from me when I'm actually in bed.

I'd support a command-line and config option that did that, in addition to an option that adjusted the timezone.

-- 
brian m. carlson (he/him or they/them)
Toronto, Ontario, CA