[UPDATE] Upcoming changes to CMStats

CyanogenMod has always been big on tracking basic device information regarding their users (so has Google for that matter) by recording basic information such as a hashed copy of the IMEI or MEID (for unique tracking) as well as device model, cell carrier, CM version and country of residence. All that’s well and good, and as I said Google records the same information anyway. An anonymous source has tipped us to a change in this implementation that some users may find interesting.

Several patches are set to be uploaded to CM’s gerrit instance sometime today. The patches should make it easier to CM to determine (without intruding on user’s security) just how many of us use our devices. The idea is many of us don’t use our devices for phones (I myself make at most 2 or 3 calls a week but often not even that), the first patch, which isn’t on their gerrit yet, is set to added to the dialer application. The purpose is to track how often the dialer itself is launched, button actions, whether or not people use the search bar and if users are taking advantage of the ‘nearby place’ feature.

According to CM, none of this information will be identifiable; they’ve never led us astray in the past so I personally see little need to doubt their intent. But for the extra security conscious they intend on adding an opt-out function for this which will be deployed globally on the OS (this way future stat changes will take the opt-out into account) so there’s no direct reason for users to worry.

In the future similar implementations are expected to be deployed across Apollo, Trebuchet (CM’s bespoke launcher) and possibly other applications not yet listed. Hopefully this information will allow CM to better accommodate users who both use their phones as phones and as internet ready devices.

 UPDATE:

We’ve been informed that while CM could collect identifiable information, up to collecting IP addresses and similar per their privacy policy, they have no intention of collecting data that may put users and their information at risk. Instead, the only direct user information they’re interested in is GeoIP (city/state) location information. As always, the patches will be available for anyone to view on gerrit.

 

UPDATE 2:

Looks like the CM team has decided not to implement this feature due to the response from the community, and the response internally. That doesn’t mean they’ll never make it happen, they’re just not doing it right now. See the full quote, and a link to some of the discussion, after the break.

This went as expected and is actually incredibly useful – thank you all for your comments either way on the topic. 

While I stand by the statement that we really do operate in the dark about our users to a detriment to this project, clearly the communication and explanation of any such stats action in the community is going to be met with equal scrunity, fear and concern. My and (CMs as a whole) assertions of not being evil are not enough to mitigate that – your responses are proof of that. 

Under that understanding, I will drop this item for the CM communuty for the time being. There is a strong case to be made for the betterment of this project via stats (and I will make it again eventually), but I want it to be something we can all stand behind when implemented in the community.

via https://groups.google.com/d/msg/cyanogenmod-dev/9TpM3HnQb3U/775MBr9bBHoJ

Tags : CMStats, cyanogenmod