DO_NOT_TRACK

DO_NOT_TRACK A standard for respecting user privacy in software The Problem Many CLI tools, SDKs, and frameworks collect telemetry data by default. Each one has its own way to opt out: Tool Opt-out method .NET DOTNET_CLI_TELEMETRY_OPTOUT=1 AWS SAM CLI SAM_CLI_TELEMETRY=0 Azure CLI AZURE_CORE_COLLECT_TELEMETRY=0 Gatsby GATSBY_TELEMETRY_DISABLED=1 Go go telemetry off Google Cloud SDK gcloud config set disable_usage_reporting true Homebrew HOMEBREW_NO_ANALYTICS=1 Netlify CLI netlify --telemetry-disable Syncthing STNOUPGRADE=1 You get the idea. There are too many, and they are all different.The Proposal A single, standard environment variable that clearly and unambiguously expresses a user's wish to opt out of any of the following: Ad tracking Usage reporting, anonymous or not Telemetry Crash reporting Non-essential-to-functionality requests to the creator of the software or third-party We just want local software.

export DO_NOT_TRACK=1 Add the line above to your shell configuration file so it applies to all your terminal sessions: Shell File Syntax Bash ~/.bashrc export DO_NOT_TRACK=1 Zsh ~/.zshrc export DO_NOT_TRACK=1 Fish ~/.config/fish/config.fish set -x DO_NOT_TRACK 1 PowerShell $PROFILE $env:DO_NOT_TRACK = "1" Windows (CMD) System Environment Variables setx DO_NOT_TRACK 1 For Software Authors If you develop tools that collect telemetry, analytics, or make non-essential network requests, please check for this variable: If DO_NOT_TRACK is set to 1, disable all tracking Respect the variable alongside your existing opt-out mechanisms Consider making telemetry opt-in rather than opt-out See Also no-color.org — NO_COLOR, a standard for disabling color output force-color.org — FORCE_COLOR, a standard for forcing color output