BlenderKit add-on violates Blender's privacy policy #76779

New Issue

Campbell Barton · 2020-05-15T10:41:59+02:00

Campbell Barton commented

2020-05-15 10:41:59 +02:00

Text from: https://www.blender.org/about/license

Blender respects your privacy, no registration is needed, no connection to the internet is made if you decide to install and use Blender. Blender does not need internet to function properly.

Some add-ons bundled with Blender may access the internet for additional services. These add-ons are not enabled on installing Blender. These add-ons are not required to be enabled for proper functioning of the software, nor will any Blender function ask for enabling such add-ons.

Add-ons that require internet will ask a user explicit permission to use internet while or after enabling the add-on.

BlenderKit add-on currently polls the users clipboard, detects changes, makes requests bases on the contents.

See:

release/scripts/addons/blenderkit/search.py check_clipboard function. timer_update

Suggest moving this to a button, explicit user action.

Text from: https://www.blender.org/about/license ``` Blender respects your privacy, no registration is needed, no connection to the internet is made if you decide to install and use Blender. Blender does not need internet to function properly. Some add-ons bundled with Blender may access the internet for additional services. These add-ons are not enabled on installing Blender. These add-ons are not required to be enabled for proper functioning of the software, nor will any Blender function ask for enabling such add-ons. Add-ons that require internet will ask a user explicit permission to use internet while or after enabling the add-on. ``` BlenderKit add-on currently polls the users clipboard, detects changes, makes requests bases on the contents. See: `release/scripts/addons/blenderkit/search.py` `check_clipboard` function. `timer_update` Suggest moving this to a button, explicit user action.

Campbell Barton commented

2020-05-15 10:41:59 +02:00

Added subscriber: @ideasman42

Vilem Duha was assigned by Campbell Barton

2020-05-15 10:46:15 +02:00

Campbell Barton changed title from ~~BlendKit add-on violates Blender's privacy policy~~ to BlenderKit add-on violates Blender's privacy policy

2020-05-15 10:48:57 +02:00

Vilem Duha commented

2020-05-19 13:15:08 +02:00

Moving this function to a button makes it obsolete (it's definitely an option). Maybe we should make a clear statement that the addon connects to the internet while the addon is enabled, to adhere to the policy? Since the clipboard function is one of many that connect to the internet (while most of them do it through user actions) - BlenderKit is an internet browser by it's nature. Also to make it clear, in this particular case, connection is made only after the clipboard data is detected as a valid search request, there is literally zero possibility to connect when the clipboard content isn't a BlenderKit website generated string.

Petr Dlouhý commented

2020-05-19 14:06:41 +02:00

Added subscriber: @petr.dlouhy

Petr Dlouhý commented

2020-05-19 14:06:41 +02:00

Additional button click would be against purpose of this function - direct linking the asset from website to BlenderKit search. The seamless user experience is important here.

I think, that copying very specific string to string should be considered explicit user action.

Although the string is not specific enough in the current implementation - I think we should add validation of UUID and asset_type variariables and send only these validated data and nothing else from the string.

If that is not enough, we could also add something very specific to the copied string, like checksum of the variables, that would ensure, that it could not be in the clipboard by mistake.

Additional button click would be against purpose of this function - direct linking the asset from website to BlenderKit search. The seamless user experience is important here. I think, that copying very specific string to string should be considered explicit user action. Although the string is not specific enough in the current implementation - I think we should add validation of UUID and asset_type variariables and send only these validated data and nothing else from the string. If that is not enough, we could also add something very specific to the copied string, like checksum of the variables, that would ensure, that it could not be in the clipboard by mistake.

Campbell Barton commented

2020-06-10 05:11:12 +02:00

Added subscribers: @dfelinto, @brecht

Campbell Barton commented

2020-06-10 05:11:12 +02:00

@VilemDuha discussed this with @dfelinto and @brecht, we agreed that this option can be kept but made optional, disabled by default.

Then if users want to poll the clipboard they can enable it.

@VilemDuha discussed this with @dfelinto and @brecht, we agreed that this option can be kept but made optional, disabled by default. Then if users want to poll the clipboard they can enable it.

Petr Dlouhý commented

2020-06-11 08:15:34 +02:00

@ideasman42: If the problematic part is connecting to the internet, would be acceptable solution, if polling the clipboard would be enabled by default, but before connecting to server we prompt the user, if he/she wants to make the search (with don't show again checkbox)?

@ideasman42: If the problematic part is connecting to the internet, would be acceptable solution, if polling the clipboard would be enabled by default, but before connecting to server we prompt the user, if he/she wants to make the search (with `don't show again` checkbox)?

Vilem Duha commented

2020-06-12 11:37:31 +02:00

Changed status from 'Needs Triage' to: 'Resolved'

Vilem Duha closed this issue

2020-06-12 11:37:31 +02:00

Vilem Duha commented

2020-06-12 11:37:31 +02:00

For the 2.83 release, we 'resolved' this issue by disabling the feature.
However, I need to mention again, that there really isn't a risk of a user connecting to the internet without a very specific action, even if it happens outside of blender in the browser - by copying the predefined string into the clipboard.
By now, we decided that we will solve the issue for next release with a popup asking if the user wants to run the search that is contained in the string.

For the 2.83 release, we 'resolved' this issue by disabling the feature. However, I need to mention again, that there really isn't a risk of a user connecting to the internet without a very specific action, even if it happens outside of blender in the browser - by copying the predefined string into the clipboard. By now, we decided that we will solve the issue for next release with a popup asking if the user wants to run the search that is contained in the string.

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BlenderKit add-on violates Blender's privacy policy #76779