929091 - Enable telemetry by default for beta in desktop and android Firefox

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Toolkit :: Telemetry, defect)

Description

[Benjamin Smedberg]

Enable telemetry by default in desktop and android Firefox. lmandel I know you've had prior discussions on this. I thought this was already the case, and the Click-to-activate telemetry really could use this for 26, so I'd like to push it through ASAP.

Comment 1

[Lawrence Mandel [:lmandel] (use needinfo)]

Telemetry is currently enabled by default on Nightly and Aurora. Beta and Release are opt-in. Can you be more specific as to what channels you'd like to have enabled by default?

Comment 2

[Benjamin Smedberg]

Sorry, thought that was in the summary. Beta.

Comment 3

[Lawrence Mandel [:lmandel] (use needinfo)]

Taras also asked about this recently.

Jishnu - I'm going to setup some time to discuss the feasibility of making this change from a privacy/legal perspective.

Comment 4

[Benjamin Smedberg]

ping?

Comment 5

[Lawrence Mandel [:lmandel] (use needinfo)]

Jishnu and I had a conversation about this bug. I sent some following information to Jishnu, who has the next step here to review the information and come back with a legal perspective on the risk associated with making this change:


The reasons that user research and engineering want Telemetry on beta are:
1. Firefox for Android Nightly and Aurora have a collective very small install base. Beta has a substantial install base.
2. Firefox Desktop Beta is a substantially larger install base than the Nightly and Aurora channels and, afaik, much more closely mirrors the release population.

My suggestions as to why it is reasonable to enable Telemetry by default on Beta are:
1. Beta is known to be prerelease software
2. Users who install beta know that they are getting early access to a release and in return are serving as part of the test audience
3. Many of users of Firefox Beta do not provide feedback via bug reports and e-mail and may assume that the software is automatically sending information to Mozilla

I confirmed with Taras that Google Chrome does not enable their Telemetry solution by default on any channel other than their Canary channel (equivalent to Aurora/Nightly).

Comment 6

[Jishnu Menon :jishnu]

Hi guys

Given these facts, lets get together to talk about this - there is nontrivial risk but sounds like there's a business case. Are the right folks Lawrence, Taras and Ben?

Thanks
Jishnu

Comment 7

[Lawrence Mandel [:lmandel] (use needinfo)]

Yes. I think we can have a reasonable discussion with the four of us. I'll book some time.

Comment 8

[Georg Fritzsche [:gfritzsche]]

This happened.