If an administrator has opted to participate in the VMware Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP), VMware collects and receives anonymous data from client systems through Connection Server. You can configure whether to share this client data with Connection Server.

For information about configuring Horizon 8 to join the CEIP, see the Horizon Administration document.

Data sharing is activated by default in Horizon Client. You must configure the data sharing setting before you connect to a server. The setting is applied to all servers. You cannot change the Horizon Client data sharing setting after you connect to a server.

You can use the Allow data sharing group policy setting to activate or deactivate data sharing and prevent users from changing the setting in Horizon Client. For more information, see Using Group Policy Settings to Configure Horizon Client.

VMware collects data about client systems to prioritize hardware and software compatibility. If your administrator has opted to participate in the customer experience improvement program, VMware collects anonymous data about your deployment to respond better to customer requirements. VMware does not collect data that identifies your organization. Horizon Client information is sent first to the Connection Server instance and then to VMware, along with data about Connection Server, desktop pools, and remote desktops.

The information is encrypted when it is in transit to the Connection Server instance. The information on the client system is logged unencrypted in a user-specific directory. The logs do not contain personally identifiable information.

An administrator can select whether to participate in the VMware customer experience improvement program when installing Connection Server or by setting an option in Horizon Console after the installation.

Table 1. Data Collected from Horizon Clients for the Customer Experience Improvement Program
Description Is This Field Made Anonymous?
Company that produced the Horizon Client application No
Product name No
Client product version No
Client binary architecture No
Client build name No
Host operating system No
Host operating system kernel No
Host operating system architecture No
Host system model No
Host system CPU No
Number of cores in the host system's processor No
MB of memory on the host system No
Number of USB devices connected No
Maximum concurrent USB device connections No
USB device vendor ID No
USB device product ID No
USB device family No
USB device use count No

Procedure

  1. Start Horizon Client.
  2. Click Settings (gear icon) in the upper-right corner of the menu bar and select Data Sharing.
  3. Toggle the Data sharing mode option to on or off.