FAQ#

What happens when I enable conda-anaconda-telemetry?#

When the conda-anaconda-telemetry plugin is installed in the conda base environment and enabled, the plugin will collect additional information about how conda is being used. This is then submitted to the channel servers that are currently configured via HTTP request headers. This allows channel owners to gain additional insights about how their channels are being used.

What data is tracked by this plugin?#

We currently collect the following information when this plugin is installed:

  • Installed virtual packages (e.g., glibc version or your current architecture specifications, such as m1)

  • Installed packages in the active environment (e.g. the output of conda list)

  • Configured channels (e.g. defaults or conda-forge)

  • System information (e.g. conda-build version or the command currently being run)

  • When conda search is run, we track the packages that are being searched for

  • When conda install or conda create is run, we track the packages that are being installed that are specified at the command line (e.g. for the command conda install package-a package-b, package-a and package-b will be tracked)

Which commands are you tracking?#

We only track commands that make network requests. This includes the following:

  • conda search

  • conda install

  • conda update

  • conda create

  • conda remove

  • conda notices

When are telemetry headers attached?#

Telemetry headers (the anaconda-telemetry-* headers) are only added to HTTP requests that match a small whitelist of hosts and paths. The plugin attaches headers for requests to:

  • repo.anaconda.com and repo.anaconda.cloud (any path), and

  • conda.anaconda.org/<channel>/... for the channels: anaconda, conda-forge, main, msys2, and r.

Examples:

  • Requests to https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/main/... will include telemetry headers.

  • Requests to https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/... will include telemetry headers.

This behavior is implemented in conda_anaconda_telemetry/hooks.py via a compiled regular expression named REQUEST_HEADER_PATTERN which performs the matching. Limiting submission to these hosts avoids adding telemetry headers to unrelated third-party hosts.

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