Have what I feel is an interesting topic that I hope spawns a good discussion/debate. I'm interested in your opinions...

I know of a company (friend of a friend who works there) who has decided to start collecting usage data on how their software program is used. It will track use of all functions and kinds of data it will lookup. The communication mechanism it will use is through the Internet by way of web services-related protocols (the customers all have Internet access). Then they will take this data and use it for the following purposes:

1. Modify program to increase usuability and highlight more common functions to hopefully improve the product. Program enhancements which it could sell as add-ons or bundle with upgrades, etc.
2. Generate reports and sell them to the customers, who are businesses, which they will use to run their business. The reports will show how other similar businesses use the program, etc - it will be anonymous, business names wont be identified.
3. Generate reports and sell them to the manufacturers and suppliers who supply the customers.

This situation conjours up thoughts and opinions that I have regarding the future of the software industry and that is that I predict that there's a new shift coming where the software we buy will _phone home_ back to the manufacturer to report back how it's used. I realize that this is not new but is currently, at least in my experience, the exception and not the norm. I believe it will soon become the norm.

It makes me think about how Intuit used that Internet registration service for TurboTax (customer uproar and since forced them to remove it from future versions) and Microsoft's Passport service...and others.

To me, this usage _tracking_ is like the tracking cookies, spyware, and adware we remove from our Internet browser cache's via Adaware. I'm all for software vendors improving their product based on how people use it but where do we draw the privacy line?

What are your thoughts about this?
Do you see this new paradigm shift as I see it?
Are you concerned about it or not?
Comments?....