Microsoft says .....We’ve
gotten a few questions recently about the fact that our latest WGA
Notifications package sends install telemetry when installed or
canceled. Given past concerns about data WGA sends out I wanted to take
a moment to explain what is happening with this latest release and why.
First, all downloads that flow through Windows Update return success/failure telemetry. This
is because of the large scale of distributions over Windows Update.
When sending out an update package to potentially millions of customers
it’s important to gather basic data on successful installations,
install failures and user rejections or cancelations at any point in
the process. Second, this event is one time only. Also, if the system
isn’t connected to the internet nothing will be sent nor will it be if
an attempt to send fails.
By
learning at what point in the install process some users decide to
abandon, we can put more effort into the right places in the
installation wizard. Remember our goal with the wizard is to give more information so customers will be better informed. We
heard from customers that they wanted more information about what the
software was and how it worked so we created the install wizard to
provide that greater context. Knowing this kind of information about
the install wizard installations is critical for us to continue to
improve the customer experience of WGA. If we are not hitting that
mark, we can use this method to improve.
Just
to allay any fears that Microsoft is using any personal information,
here an example of the actual XML that is returned when a user cancels
an installation. We’ve also added a data type and detailed description
of each field. This XML schema is common to a number of products so
some fields are not used in this case.
