yikes
I don't know about this (more from the owner). I think I'd rather keep paying for NetNewsWire than have to go through opting out of all their undercover "attention" gathering. Not so much for myself, but for all the other users out there who will download it having no idea they've opted into something like this by doing so.
Seems awfully sleazy for a group of really good guys. Though Nick denies this in his post it sort of sounds like the beginning of the downward slide of Newsgator. I mean if you could charge money wouldn't you? I guess selling the data to the highest bidder or perhaps using it to build some meta site might make a few bucks, but you're moving from a clean, clear, well known business model to a fuzzy one of finding uses for "attention data".