Actually, there was talk of "calling home" in the early days (before even 1.x, I think).  It was vhemently decried by the community and removed.

I and a few others have more recently (3.x & 4.x) proposed some sort of "opt-in" facilities....to allow those who actively choose to do so; to submit abstract, non-easily-identifiable statistics--to help define the community and guide coding efforts.  Sadly, while several big companies' product offer to "call home" with diagnostic info.....the DNN Core Team seem not to have taken to the idea...

Also beware that some third party modules do "call home."  They provide similar "Update" services....and have to know what you're running...  Obviously you could run DNN without such third party add-ons.