Intro
In this post, we’re going to look at how to quickly turn off telemetry data in .NET Core.
A complete list of post in this series is included below :
Day 1 - Installing and Running .NET Core on a Windows Box
Day 2 - Taking a Look at the Visual Studio Templates for .NET Core
Day 3 - Running a .NET Core app on a Mac
Day 4 - Creating a NuGet Package from .NET Core app
Day 5 - Creating a Test Project from .NET Core
Day 6 - Migrating an existing .NET Core to csproj
Day 7 - Creating an ASP.NET Core Web Application
Day 8 - Using Visual Studio Code with a .NET Core Console Application
Day 9 - Creating a .NET Core Console App inside of Visual Studio Code
Day 10 - Using JetBrains Rider with a .NET Core Console Application
Day 11 - Exploring .NET Core with Visual Studio 2017 and the updated CLI Tools
A word about telemetry data
We all know that telemetry data (or some sort of data) is needed in order to improve a product. You could argue however, that telemetry data should be an opt-in process and I’d agree with you. I like Yeoman’s approach to this. The key here is the Yes/No prompt that forces the user to make a decision.
The default behavior of .NET Core is to opt you in, but it displays a whole section relating to the topic as shown below with a way to quickly opt-out.
.NET Core also outlines exactly the data they are collecting which is needed in order to approve the technology being used in many businesses.
The point that I’m trying to make here is that a) data is needed in order to make a product great b) be up front that you are collecting telemetry data c) if you make a tool that collects telemetry, try to make it very easy for someone to opt-out d) provide clear guidance about what data you are collecting. I’m sure there are more things to add to this list, but this is the first that comes to my mind with this topic.
Turning it off on Windows
You can quickly turn it off on Windows, by running the set DOTNET_CLI_TELEMETRY_OPTOUT=1 from a command prompt. After running the command, you can simply run type SET to see the current environment variables that Windows has set. Below is a snippet of running the command on my machine. You’ll see the OUPOUT value close to the bottom of the list.
Turning it off on MacOS and Linux
You can also turn it off on MacOS and Linux by running the export DOTNET_CLI_TELEMETRY_OPTOUT=1 from the shell.
Wrap-up
As always, thanks for reading and smash one of those share buttons to give this post some love if you found it helpful. Also, feel free to leave a comment below or follow me on twitter for daily links and tips.
Day 12 - Turning off Telemetry Data in .NET Core was originally published by Michael Crump at Michael Crump on March 12, 2017.