If I create a OSS app with analytics to detect & log crashes with feature use, is it a bad practice? I think analytics is really helpful in finding:-
- which features are worth developing &
- which bugs needs to be solved first.
Edit…
Things Collected
- IP Address for use ping (for country)
- All crashes with IP
- Feature use with IP Crashes are store for upto 6 months to solve bug but rest are collected and delete after 3 months
It is opt-out but user are informed about it during first / install time. To disable analytics Settings --> Privacy
I want to know right way to introduce analytics in OSS
I would view it as basically a research ethics question, as in I owe the participants of this experiment to be made fully aware about what I am collecting and why. Giving them the ability to remove their analytics seems obvious as well.
I don’t think opt-in is necessarily required ethically but having clear information available about the entire extent of the use of the data and the ability to remove it should be practiced. In the same way I might conduct a human trial on someone who agrees to engage as a participant, but I’m not giving them all of the information at the onset so as to not bias their response. Though I do provide a full summary once I’m finished collecting the data (i.e. the study is over).
I agree with opt-in policies. The only ethical case for opt-out is if you obtain informed consent ahead of the participation of the user which is de facto opt-in.