4 ms·

When did logging and reporting become "telemetry"?

• mrwnmonm 3y ago
  What does telemetry mean?
  • davidw 3y ago
    It's accurate in that it's the "remote collection and transmission of data", but it's a term traditionally associated with aerospace. Software has been doing this for a long time, but only recently have people started calling it "telemetry".
    • EscapeFromNY 3y ago
      It's not just an aerospace term. It's a general term dating back centuries across dozens of different industries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telemetry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telemetry Look at that list under Applications. What makes software so different that it shouldn't be included?
      • yamtaddle 3y ago
        For my part: it didn't used to be called that, and feels like software folks trying to feel fancier than they are (and/or whitewashing bad practices by pushing new-to-the-industry terminology that makes spying sound scientific) Though at this point it's been widespread long enough that I suppose it's just a normal term that's "always been used", to some developers, not a new, alien-feeling part of the software lexicon.
        • EscapeFromNY 3y ago
          I think the word telemetry is fine. It's concise, accurate, and not emotionally loaded in either direction. Microsoft OTOH calls their data collection the "Customer Experience Improvement Program" - now THAT is whitewashing. It's only been a decade or so now that you could rely on most computers always having an internet connection. That's probably why the term feels new - it only started being used when the practice became technically feasible. Maybe others remember things differently. /shrug
        • mrwnmonm 3y ago
          > feels like software folks trying to feel fancier than they are Like neural networks?
          • yamtaddle 3y ago
            I suppose the ur-example in programming would be "dynamic programming". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_programming#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_programming#History Sounds super-fancy and advanced, but when you dig in it's like, "oh, that's all?"
• nathanlied 3y ago
  When was it not? Telemetry - the act of collecting logs/"metrics" and reporting them back to a remote (tele) station - how could this not be considered telemetry?
  • davidw 3y ago
    It has only been called that recently in the context of software. Edit: have been doing software since the mid-nineties. You can downvote all you want, but this is a more recent usage.
    • AnonCoward42 3y ago
      Actually the name for it previously was spyware or the act of spying. The term telemetry is/was more neutral, but it also has a bad reputation by now (euphemism treadmill).
      • stanleydrew 3y ago
        It's called "spyware" when you don't trust the collector to be acting in good faith.
        • yamtaddle 3y ago
          Used to be that transmitting data about what the user's doing without asking for permission was "spyware" automatically—that it was happening behind your back was already a sign of bad faith. The opt-in thing is fine, but some of us are still stuck, I guess, on older standards for software ethics, and find it entirely unacceptable and alarming that opt-out was ever proposed in the first place, about as bad as if they'd proposed adding an opt-out bitcoin miner to it to help fund the project—it's disturbing they'd consider that OK to even propose.
• account42 3y ago
  When developers started to log on my computer and report that data to their servers.
• hedora 3y ago
  Logging and reporting is generally for the benefit of the end user. Telemetry is generally for the benefit of the marketing team, law enforcement and development team.
• yamtaddle 3y ago
  When did it stop being spyware? (some time in the back half of the '00s, I reckon)