because it’s possible to connect to natural persons.

That’s debatable, and is only based on the claim that it’s just a 24bit decoding that can be brute forced. I don’t know for a fact that it’s true that it can be boiled down to 24bit.
I checked my own /etc/machine-id, and the folder doesn’t even exist, so what exactly is supposed to be in it IDK. And yes I use Manjaro.

You could just assign a random number on install or whatever.

Funny, I thought the exact same thing.

this would have is some sort of tracking.

It’s right at the top of the announcement, that it’s mainly for more accurate stats on unique users.
It’s not that I think this is a good idea, because I don’t, but some people are blowing it out of proportions. Especially since this isn’t at all decided. Which I seriously doubt it will.

You can see the code of what is send.
I’m not aware that Google claims they collect data anonymously, on everything where you are logged in.
So that’s a false equivalence.

The MAC address is anonymized with sha256, and IP adresses aren’t stored.
So this seems to me to be perfectly anonymous.

This may be illegal in EU if they don’t use opt in. Even then it may be illegal for under 18 year olds to collect MAC addresses and disk serial numbers, as those can potentially be used for identification.

The data is anonymized, and the IP is NOT stored. So I’m not sure this violates GDPR?

From the code we can see the machine ID is anonymized, sending only a SHA256 checksum.

def get_hashed_device_id():
    # Read the machine ID
    with open("/etc/machine-id", "r") as f:
        machine_id = f.read().strip()

    # Hash the machine ID using SHA-256 to anonymize it
    hashed_id = hashlib.sha256(machine_id.encode()).digest()

    # Convert the first 16 bytes of the hash to a UUID (version 5 UUID format)
    return str(uuid.UUID(bytes=hashed_id[:16], version=5))

This makes it somewhat a nothingburger IMO.

Absolutely, My kitchen scale remains accurate and can use the same battery for years.

Yes it looks like an iron axe, and God has a problem with Iron:
https://biblehub.com/judges/1-19.htm

Judges 1:19

The LORD was with the men of Judah. They took possession of the hill country, but they were unable to drive the people from the plains, because they had chariots fitted with iron.

So the idea that God is almighty is pretty ridiculous, according to the Bible that is.