Canonical's director of Desktop Ubuntu, Will Cooke, recently announced that the company wants to implement some kind of data collection mechanism in future versions of Ubuntu Linux to improve the things that matter most to users.
Canonical's Ubuntu Desktop engineers need the information to improve certain aspects of the Linux-based operating system, including user settings, installed software, Ubuntu flavor and version, network connectivity, CPU family, RAM, and manufacturer.
Additionally, the company says it needs to know your location, but promises not to store users' IP addresses. Other information that will be collected is total installation time, auto-login details, selected disk layout, LivePatch activation, and whether you choose to install updates or third-party software during installation.
However, it's important to know that this tactic will help the Ubuntu Desktop development team focus their efforts on the things you care about most in future Ubuntu releases. Canonical also said that all data collected from the installation will be sent securely to a service managed by Canonical's IS team over HTTPS.
The data is stored locally on your computer and sent to Canonical on first boot if an active network connection is detected. Users will be able to access the corresponding file containing the collected data to inspect it in detail. Canonical has stated that the results of this data collection will be made public.
