GitLab wants to collect more data on how users use the platform, to improve their service faster. “GitLab has a lot of features, and a lot of users, and it is time that we use telemetry to get the data we need for our product managers to improve the experience,” says the company.
Companies can use so-called SaaS telemetry products to get analytics on user behavior in web-based applications. This will make it possible to improve user experiences faster, because it is clear what users do and don’t do in an app, Gitlab explains in a blog post.
The company now wants to use such tools to collect more data about the use of its own platform. However, this only applies to the SaaS product GitLab.com and the platform’s Self-Managed packages. According to the company, GitLab Core – the free version of the platform – remains free and unchanged.
Changes
The other two products get new JavaScript snippets, says GitLab in the blog post. However, some changes are coming.
The code in these snippets is executed in the user’s browser, after which they send information about the use of a service back to the telemetry service. In this case, the information goes to GitLab itself and possibly also to Pendo, a third party telemetry service.
The platform will describe what information is collected and what is done with it in its privacy policy. In addition, the data protection standards for the services of third parties that GitLab wants to use must be at least as strong as its own.
Unsubscribing is possible
GitLab further emphasizes that users who do not want to be tracked can indicate this. Browsers include a Do Not Track mechanism that allows users to indicate that they do not want to be tracked on the Internet. If the mechanism is enabled, the JavaScript snippets will not be loaded.
12 hours ago
