Bug 286085 - security/tailscale: Add telemetry opt-out to rc script
Summary: security/tailscale: Add telemetry opt-out to rc script
Status: Closed FIXED
Alias: None
Product: Ports & Packages
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Individual Port(s) (show other bugs)
Version: Latest
Hardware: Any Any
: --- Affects Some People
Assignee: Ashish SHUKLA
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2025-04-13 23:58 UTC by Allison Nicole Reid
Modified: 2025-04-19 07:49 UTC (History)
0 users

See Also:
ashish: maintainer-feedback+
ashish: merge-quarterly+


Attachments
Patch to add telemetry opt-out to Tailscale rc script (2.99 KB, patch)
2025-04-13 23:58 UTC, Allison Nicole Reid
no flags Details | Diff
Poudriere testport for my patch (899.07 KB, text/plain)
2025-04-14 00:00 UTC, Allison Nicole Reid
no flags Details
Output of Tailscale daemon startup with new option unset (47.15 KB, text/plain)
2025-04-14 00:06 UTC, Allison Nicole Reid
no flags Details
Output of Tailscale daemon startup with Telemetry opt-out enabled (47.33 KB, text/plain)
2025-04-14 00:08 UTC, Allison Nicole Reid
no flags Details

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Description Allison Nicole Reid 2025-04-13 23:58:48 UTC
Created attachment 259532 [details]
Patch to add telemetry opt-out to Tailscale rc script

I use the Tailscale client software with my self-hosted Headscale control-plane and was very disappointed recently when I realized I've been feeding Tailscale (the company) detailed telemetry for everything I do on my supposedly-private network despite having no business relationship with them.


See Tailscale KB1011 for reference: https://tailscale.com/kb/1011/log-mesh-traffic


“Each Tailscale agent in your distributed network streams its logs to a central log server (at log.tailscale.io). This includes real-time events for open and close events for every inter-machine connection (TCP or UDP) on your network.”


This patch adds the ability to turn that off by adding a generic ${tailscaled_args} plus a specific ${tailscaled_telemetry_enable} which uses the _args variable in the same way that the existing ${tailscaled_exitnode_enable} uses ${tailscaled_up_args}. The two _args variables are not redundant, because the new one is the argument to starting the service and the existing one is the argument to the running client's instruction to create the TUN interface.


I defaulted to telemetry enabled, because Tailscale say that it must be enabled for their customers to get technical support. Headscale users and privacy-conscious Tailscale customers can choose to opt out.
Comment 1 Allison Nicole Reid 2025-04-14 00:00:54 UTC
Created attachment 259533 [details]
Poudriere testport for my patch

poudriere testport -z headless -j freebsd:14:amd64 security/tailscale | tee ~/tailscale-privacy.txt
Comment 2 Allison Nicole Reid 2025-04-14 00:06:42 UTC
Created attachment 259534 [details]
Output of Tailscale daemon startup with new option unset

This is a standard startup; no different from prior to my patch.
Comment 3 Allison Nicole Reid 2025-04-14 00:08:08 UTC
Created attachment 259535 [details]
Output of Tailscale daemon startup with Telemetry opt-out enabled

See the first lines for the important part:

2025/04/13 16:29:20 You have disabled logging. Tailscale will not be able to provide support.
Comment 4 commit-hook freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2025-04-19 07:44:50 UTC
A commit in branch main references this bug:

URL: https://cgit.FreeBSD.org/ports/commit/?id=218beea3335c1f426312807802f4fb53ed79f512

commit 218beea3335c1f426312807802f4fb53ed79f512
Author:     Allison Reid <root@cooltrainer.org>
AuthorDate: 2025-04-13 23:36:40 +0000
Commit:     Ashish SHUKLA <ashish@FreeBSD.org>
CommitDate: 2025-04-19 07:43:15 +0000

    security/tailscale: Add telemetry opt-out to rc script

    PR:             286085
    MFH:            2025Q2

 security/tailscale/Makefile            |  2 +-
 security/tailscale/files/tailscaled.in | 17 ++++++++++++++++-
 2 files changed, 17 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
Comment 5 commit-hook freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2025-04-19 07:46:52 UTC
A commit in branch 2025Q2 references this bug:

URL: https://cgit.FreeBSD.org/ports/commit/?id=19872ccd43faf6830ed288f3e07df4795570af50

commit 19872ccd43faf6830ed288f3e07df4795570af50
Author:     Allison Reid <root@cooltrainer.org>
AuthorDate: 2025-04-13 23:36:40 +0000
Commit:     Ashish SHUKLA <ashish@FreeBSD.org>
CommitDate: 2025-04-19 07:45:01 +0000

    security/tailscale: Add telemetry opt-out to rc script

    PR:             286085
    MFH:            2025Q2
    (cherry picked from commit 218beea3335c1f426312807802f4fb53ed79f512)

 security/tailscale/Makefile            |  2 +-
 security/tailscale/files/tailscaled.in | 17 ++++++++++++++++-
 2 files changed, 17 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
Comment 6 Ashish SHUKLA freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2025-04-19 07:49:13 UTC
Thank you, committed.