Telemetry in Image Customizer

Image Customizer collects usage data to help improve the product. This data helps us understand usage patterns, diagnose issues, improve reliability and prioritize new features based on real-world usage. This section describes what telemetry is collected, how it’s used, and how to opt out.

Scope

Image Customizer can be run in two ways:

• As a container image downloaded from Microsoft Artifact Registry
• As a binary built from the GitHub repository

Telemetry is collected in both cases.

How to opt out

Telemetry collection for Image Customizer is enabled by default. To opt out, use the flag --disable-telemetry. Here is a sample command:

docker run \
   --rm \
   --privileged=true \
   -v /dev:/dev \
   -v "$HOME/staging:/mnt/staging:z" \
   mcr.microsoft.com/azurelinux/imagecustomizer:0.18.0 \
     --image-file "/mnt/staging/image.vhdx" \
     --config-file "/mnt/staging/image-config.yaml" \
     --build-dir "/build" \
     --output-image-format "vhdx" \
     --output-image-file "/mnt/staging/out/image.vhdx"
     --disable-telemetry

Data Collection and Storage

Image Customizer doesn’t collect personal data, such as IP addresses, usernames, Azure subscription IDs or email addresses. Telemetry is collected using the OpenTelemetry (OTel) framework and is stored securely in an Azure Monitor Workspace to be used only for product improvement and diagnostics.

The telemetry feature collects the following data:

Category	Examples
Usage Metrics	Number of image customizations, API call frequency, Number of Image Customizer downloads
Environment Info	Host OS (e.g., WSL, Ubuntu, Azure Linux), base image-format
Performance	Image creation success and failure rates, error codes, Time taken to create images

Protecting your privacy is important to us. You can always opt out and continue using the tool without restrictions.