Simlify exception window and introduce bug reporting via telemetry about greenshot

[Lakritzator]

@c33s and the rest:
If you followed us over the years, you should know we don't want your data and we stay away of anything that might be flaky. We will certainly follow GDPR rules, and will use opt-in, and if we track telemetry, we will not do something traceable to a person or IP address. As we are delivery open source, you can see what we do, currently there is a telemetry experiment in the recent sources, this will not stay in the current form.

I do think that people are overreacting a bit, when I hear we don't use Windows 10 while... etc... as most telemetry is exactly used as they tell you and are not tracking people but want to know what is happening with their application. Anyway that is my opinion which I am just as much entitled to as you. I do respect someones opinion and try to support this by not tracking information by default.

On the other side, we don't know how much users we have, what features they use and issues they are facing. We currently only focus on areas in Greenshot depending on the issues reported, maybe those are not occurring as much as others. It would help to steer us in the right direction, from this point of view telemetry is important...

There is always two sides to a story....

@jinek Thanks for the information, I am in fact aware of such solutions and well versed in GDPR 😄 and the more localized versions of this.

[Lakritzator]

Yes, this is something I'm looking into.
The problem is that a technology like that would have cost us money, and as you are using Greenshot for free this wasn't an option -> I'm not paying money so others can enjoy.

Microsoft is now offering a solution, with a free tier with App Center, so we might do so.

The problem stay that there is no link between the telemetry and the user, you detect an error and never know when it's fixed.

[jinek]

Related to #138

[jinek]

I believe developers here are aware of most of this, but I hope it will help otherwise.

When catching the exception we can generate GUID and wrap exception into another (code is as idea):

var guid = Guid.NewGuid();
var exceptionToLog=new TrackableException(guid, e.Exception);
DialogMessage("You've got error. It can be tracked via link: github.com/greenshot/search?keyword={guid}");

Alternative is to put this guid into Exception.Data (if system of you choice also logs Data property in to telemetry).

Again that is depending on telemetry system, whether it can recognize same exception and put newly generate "guid" as advanced data. If no, if we need to make grouping by ourselves, we can calculate hash code of the combination of {exception.Type.ToString, exception.StackTrace, innerException} (where innerException goes recursively of course ). Thus, when we know unique hash code of this exception type, we can redirect user to github.com/greenshot/search?keyword={exceptionHashCode}"

I also want you to be aware of European GDPR stuff, we should not track users and we are not allowed to send them emails etc. However, with a simple dialog box "Allow to gather anonymous information to help us to improve...." we can send exception stuff back to server.

However, If we want to notify users by email, we need to find ready-to-go service, which handles data agreements, USA and EU GDPR, Russian laws to keep private data inside country etc.

That is also the point why not everybody sends reports to greenshot, some people in companies are not allowed to do that by company rules. People need difficult to get approval to share information from their company laptops..

[c33s]

if i speak for me, i prefer to open a github issue. i really dislike all the telemetry stuff. one of my main reasons why i don't want to install windows 10 and why i am looking to linux.