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Joomla 3.5 Now Collects Anonymous Site Data

Written by Nick Savov Nick Savov
Published: 15 March 2016 15 March 2016
Joomla 3.5 Will Collect Anonymous Site Data

Joomla 3.5 includes a new data collection plugin that allows the Joomla project to gather anonymous data about installs. 

The data collected is very similar to the data already being collected by the WordPress and Drupal projects. The plugin is also opt-in and can be easily enabled or disabled.

This tutorial will explain what information it collects, why it collects it, and how to enable it.

What types of information will be collected?

The following details are collected:

  • Joomla version (ex: 3.5.0)
  • Operating system and version (ex: Darwin 14.5.0)
  • PHP version (ex: 5.5.10)
  • Database type and version (ex: mysqli 5.5.34)

It also includes an anonymized unique ID to mitigate collecting duplicate information.

Joomla 3.5 Now Collects Anonymous Site Data

What will the information be used for?

The data gathered will help Joomla to determine which versions and software requirements it should support.

If only a tiny percentage of users are still using an old Joomla version, support will likely be discontinued for that version. But, if a majority are still using the old version, it will help the Joomla project to make good decisions based on usage data. You can see some of the collected data live on Joomla.org:

joomla-stats

Can I be sure this is all legitimate? 

Joomla is an open source, community run project. Development is done in the open in GitHub repositories. The server side code is public available at Joomla's GitHub account, while the client-side code is available at this GitHub link.

Having the code publicly available provides a high level of transparency.

How can I enable the data collection?

All the data is anonymized, so all you have to do is enable the feature. When you first update to Joomla 3.5, you'll get a notification for it. Click "Always".

You can also enable it this way ...

  1. Extensions > Plugins.
  2. Edit the "System - Joomla! Statistics" plugin.
  3. Set "Mode" to "Always Send" or "On Demand".

How can I make sure data collecton is turned off?

To 100% guarantee that data collection is turned off, disable the plugin from:

  1. Extensions > Plugins.
  2. Disable the "System - Joomla! Statistics" plugin.

Alternatively, the plugin can be left as enabled and the mode can be set to "Never send".

Have any questions?

If you have any questions or feedback, please leave a comment below. We enjoy reading and answering your comments.