Allow to disable telemetry from batect.yml

[sschuberth]

Describe the problem you'd like to solve

As Batect can nicely be bootstrapped, it works out of the box even for people new to Batect. However, new users still need to explicitly opt-in/-out from collecting telemetry, which may seem inconvenient.

Describe the solution you'd like

I'd like to pre-configure the collection of telemetry on a per-project basis via a setting in batect.yml. This has two benefits:

1. when Batect is bootstrapped / run for the first time, no annoying hint about telemetry appears, and
2. collection of telemetry can be configured on a per-project basis, so you can allow telemetry collection for some projects, and disallow it for other projects for the same user.

Describe alternatives you've considered

No response

Additional context

No response

[charleskorn]

Thanks for the suggestion @sschuberth.

I can see value in having something that disables telemetry for a project even if a user has enabled it, however, I'm not keen to add something that enables telemetry automatically with no user intervention - that seems like something that a user should still have control over. Does that make sense?

[sschuberth]

Yes, makes sense. So essentially, the idea would be to only allow to disable telemetry from batect.yml, but not to enable it.

[sschuberth]

So, how would you go for implementing this, @charleskorn? In particular, where exactly inside batect.yml should this be configured? Should we allow the user to add a special entry to config_variables to disable telemetry?

[charleskorn]

I was thinking it could be a top-level configuration option in batect.yml, similar to project_name. Something like forbid_telemetry perhaps?

I'm keen to keep config variables for users to do with as they wish.

What do you think?

[sschuberth]

Top-level sounds fine. Not sure about the naming yet, though. Maybe slightly less "strict" disable_telemetry?

[charleskorn]

I'm not sure on the name either... I was trying to find a name where it was clear that setting the value to false doesn't mean that telemetry is enabled. Another option would be to avoid using a boolean and instead do something like telemetry: if_consented / telemetry: forbidden.

[sschuberth]

Maybe telemetry_opt_out: true or forbid_telemetry: true?

[sschuberth]

Ping @charleskorn! Do you think this is something that could be solved for the next release of Batect? Together with #1016 these were the blockers for us to take Batect into production use.

[charleskorn]

Yep, definitely. Sorry for the delay - I've been working on something else but that's not urgent.

[sschuberth]

I've been working on something else but that's not urgent.

Huh, interesting stuff (and technical approach)!

[charleskorn]

I've just added this and it will be released as part of 0.75.0 shortly. Please give it a go and let me know if you have any feedback!

[sschuberth]

Hmm, something seem to not be working here. If I check out this branch of our project and initially run ./batect requirements on a machine where Batect hasn't run before, I still get the prompt

Batect can collect anonymous environment, usage and performance information.
This information does not include personal or sensitive information, and is used only to help improve Batect.
More information is available at https://batect.dev/privacy, including details of what information is collected and a formal privacy policy.

Is it OK for Batect to collect this information? (Y/n)

despite having forbid_telemetry: true in batect.yml. But due to this setting I'm expecting to not see the prompt at all.

[charleskorn]

But due to this setting I'm expecting to not see the prompt at all.

Ah, interesting - that would be a slightly bigger change, as the telemetry consent prompt happens before the configuration file is loaded. That's definitely something that can be fixed though.

Even if you answer 'yes' to the prompt here, telemetry information will still not be collected for any project with forbid_telemetry: true - your consent would only apply to projects that don't forbid telemetry.

[charleskorn]

Thanks for catching this @sschuberth - I've fixed this issue and it will be included in the next release.

[sschuberth]

Awesome @charleskorn, thanks for the follow-up fix and new release!