This is inspired by https://launchpad.net/canonical-poke imported from bzr to git on Sat 9th July 2016. The "census" (simple sqlite stats processing) and "sanitize" (log cleanup / anonymisation) were reinstated from the bzr history and separate bzr branch for reference, but later removed.
We are using the anonymous counting approach as set out in http://theravingrick.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/can-we-count-users-without-uniquely.html so that Endless can dermine the number of active systems without sending any personally identifiable or trackable information.
As well as the daily "ping" message with an incrementing counter, we are implementing a one-off "activate" request so we can tell how many systems have been turned on.