Can I get away with sending exception reports without asking the user?

Question

I write small to medium sized applications, many of which I release onto the Internet. Hopefully, all will be well, but if by some unthinkably hideous disaster, an exception occurs, can I quietly submit that report?

I could make every effort to remove the account name, and I would probably only collect the exception text.

Surely what a user doesn't know has just been sent can't hurt them, or me and my programs.

So far, users have to manually report bugs to me, but I would like to get away from this if I can, and I just want to know whether you think I can get away with this, and what you guys do.

Thanks a lot in advance!

Answer 1

User needs to approve that application can send out error information somewhere on the net.

Usually this is part of EULA, so most of users do not realize that they gave that approval.

My opinion is that it's better to add checkbox to error dialog "Send this error to YourCompanyName" with default value to "true".