Vocabulary

Here is a list of expressions you will find in our articles.

• Open source: a software is said open source when you can access its source code. This allows anyone to read, edit, distribute and contribute to it. Two well-known open source softwares are GIMP and VLC Media Player. By contrast, a software with an inaccessible source code is called a proprietary (or closed source) software, like Adobe Photoshop.
• Opt-in: a feature is an opt-in when it is deactivated by default and you must give explicitly your consent to make it active. You can think about experimental features in web browsers, which you can find in chrome://flags for Chrome and about:config for Firefox.
• Opt-out: it is a feature activated by default that you can turn off in options. For instance, Windows' automatic updates are an opt-out feature.
• Phoning home: the software collects information about your profile and/or your equipment and sends them to the developers. As an example, web browsers can send crash reports (it is an opt-out feature by the way).
• Telemetry : like phoning home, except that data is also sent to other companies. Social networks such as Twitter sends this information to advertisers to display targeted ads.