Apparently not, but the linked page does mention that this necessitated a change to their ToS and until you accept the ToS the API stops working.
I don’t think they’re trying to associate your identity with other web traffic the way normal “trackers” do, but just to have a client-side view of a browser session: what did you click on in which order in a typical session, what features are unused and what needs to be boosted to the dashboard pages of your repository, etc. Especially when backend calls can be triggered from multiple frontend locations, this sort of information can be really helpful.
I agree that they just want telemetry on how we use the apps. As a developer, I'd love that kind of telemetry too.
I think what most people are complaining about is the third-party. If, say, Gitlab hosted their own telemetry services (on their servers, accessible to their product managers, etc), I doubt there would be so much backlash.
GitLab employee, some employees have proposed this idea and (speaking personally) I think it would be a better approach. We've halted movement on using telemetry and are reconsidering. More info is on this issue: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/growth/product/issues/164
Apparently not? This is what a Gitlabber said in the original thread when someone asked about it working in air gapped environments [1]:
> I work at GitLab in Support Engineering I'm talking with product now about this. We raised this when the conversation started as a concern, and I want you to know that internally I am advocating that it _doesn't_.
They would not need to "advocate" for it to continue working if that were teh case.
