Windows 10: Data to analytics to AI: From descriptive to predictive analytics

Read more: Data to analytics to AI: From descriptive to predictive analytics | ZDNet

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What is Nokia Analytics Collector?

Hello there,

I'm a Nokia engineer, and I'm part of the team which has implemented the Nokia Analytics Collector. I'm not an official Nokia spokesperson, so what I write are not official Nokia statements. That being said, I have a good understanding of the software, what
it does, and what it doesn't do. I would like to volunteer my time to answer in detail a few of the questions that have been asked.

Question: How does the Nokia Analytics Collector work?

Answer:

The Nokia Analytics Collector is a "library" which can be utilised by an application. It is not an application, and doesn't do or send anything only by itself. Each application using the Nokia Analytics Collector has to define what application data it logs,
these are typically tags indicating "application's feature X was used", or hopefully less commonly, "application error Y occurred".

This application data is then enriched by the Nokia Analytics Collector with some standard data items. The standard data items would be, for example, the timestamp and phone model information, but not personal data such as the user's email address or phone
number. I want to specifically mention that no user-generated content is in these data items.

The data is sent via a https network connection, if a data connection is available (data network is connected). A data connection is not opened if it's not already available. Also, by default no data is sent if the data connection is over a roaming network,
however an application may override this. The frequency of sending is that typically one network request (data sending) is made by the Nokia Analytics Collector when an application is started and running, if a data connection is available.

Question: How much data does the Nokia Analytics Collector send?

Answer:

The data amount sent depends on each application using the Nokia Analytics Collector. Typically the amount of data traffic is small, a few kilobytes per one connection. Of this few kilobytes in the typical case, most of the data bytes are due to the https protocol,
while the actual data sent by Nokia Analytics Collector can then be less than 1 kilobyte in size.

Question: How do I turn the Nokia Analytics Collector off?

Answer:

Every application using the Nokia Analytics Collector has a setting inside the application for analytics or feedback collection which controls the Nokia Analytics Collector usage. The terms and conditions of the application will mention when the analytics collection
is used, and give instructions on how to turn it off. When the setting is off, it will disable data collection and data sending by the Nokia Analytics Collector for that application. There will be one more data connection made, which contains the information
that the user has chosen not to participate (opt-out), but it does not contain any data from the application.

To make this more user friendly, in the next release there will be a centralized setting in the phone's application settings for improvement program participation. This can be used to turn off the Nokia Analytics Collector for all applications. This next release
is already available with some applications in Betalabs.

Question: Can I uninstall it? What happens if I uninstall it?

Answer:

Since applications which use Nokia Analytics Collector expect it to be present, they may crash or not start if the Nokia Analytics Collector is uninstalled. This depends on the application's implementation technology, specifically Qt QML applications are not
affected in this way. It's recommended to not uninstall the Nokia Analytics Collector because of this possibility of applications crashing or not starting. It would not be readily apparent to the user that this problem with the application is not a bug in
the application or the phone malfunctioning.

The recommended way to disable Nokia Analytics Collector is to turn it off from the application's settings.





Best regards,

Mikko

 

Windows Analytics Questions

Hi guys:

I Just had few questions about Windows Analytics, hope someone can help answer them.

• How often does our computer upload the telemetry data, and how big it is?
• How do we retire a computer from Windows Analytics once we remove a Windows computer from our AD?
• How long does Windows analytics store the data, like your crashing history?
  

Thanks

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