diff --git a/lib/VersionCheck.pm b/lib/VersionCheck.pm
index 0c126d11..b612dd04 100644
--- a/lib/VersionCheck.pm
+++ b/lib/VersionCheck.pm
@@ -48,6 +48,14 @@ eval {
    require HTTP::Micro;
 };
 
+my $home    = $ENV{HOME} || $ENV{HOMEPATH} || $ENV{USERPROFILE} || '.';
+my @vc_dirs = (
+   '/etc/percona',
+   '/etc/percona-toolkit',
+   '/tmp',
+   "$home",
+);
+
 # Return the version check file used to keep track of
 # MySQL instance that have been checked and when.  Some
 # systems use random tmp dirs; we don't want that else
@@ -55,13 +63,6 @@ eval {
 # per system is the goal, so prefer global sys dirs first.
 {
    my $file    = 'percona-version-check';
-   my $home    = $ENV{HOME} || $ENV{HOMEPATH} || $ENV{USERPROFILE} || '.';
-   my @vc_dirs = (
-      '/etc/percona',
-      '/etc/percona-toolkit',
-      '/tmp',
-      "$home",
-   );
 
    sub version_check_file {
       foreach my $dir ( @vc_dirs ) {
@@ -326,6 +327,49 @@ sub get_instance_id {
    return $name, $id;
 }
 
+
+# This function has been implemented solely to be able to count individual 
+# Toolkit users for statistics. It uses a random UUID, no client info is
+# being gathered nor stored
+sub get_uuid {
+    my $uuid_file = '/.percona-toolkit.uuid';
+    foreach my $dir (@vc_dirs) {
+        my $filename = $dir.$uuid_file;
+        my $uuid=_read_uuid($filename);
+        return $uuid if $uuid;
+    }
+
+    my $filename = $ENV{"HOME"} . $uuid_file;
+    my $uuid = _generate_uuid();
+
+    open(my $fh, '>', $filename) or die "Could not open file '$filename' $!";
+    print $fh $uuid;
+    close $fh;
+
+    return $uuid;
+}   
+
+sub _generate_uuid {
+    return sprintf+($}="%04x")."$}-$}-$}-$}-".$}x3,map rand 65537,0..7;
+}
+
+sub _read_uuid {
+    my $filename = shift;
+    my $fh;
+
+    eval {
+        open($fh, '<:encoding(UTF-8)', $filename);
+    };
+    return if ($EVAL_ERROR);
+
+    my $uuid;
+    eval { $uuid = <$fh>; };
+    return if ($EVAL_ERROR);
+
+    chomp $uuid;
+    return $uuid;
+}
+
 # #############################################################################
 # Protocol handlers
 # #############################################################################
@@ -387,7 +431,7 @@ sub pingback {
    my $client_content = encode_client_response(
       items      => $items,
       versions   => $versions,
-      general_id => md5_hex( hostname() ),
+      general_id => get_uuid(),
    );
 
    my $client_response = {
diff --git a/t/lib/VersionCheck.t b/t/lib/VersionCheck.t
index ba9881a5..30436a68 100644
--- a/t/lib/VersionCheck.t
+++ b/t/lib/VersionCheck.t
@@ -201,7 +201,7 @@ is_deeply(
 # Former Pingback tests
 # #############################################################################
 
-my $general_id = md5_hex( hostname() );
+my $general_id = VersionCheck::get_uuid();
 my $master_id;  # the instance ID, _not_ 12345 etc.
 my $slave1_id;  # the instance ID, _not_ 12346 etc.
 my ($mysql_ver, $mysql_distro);
@@ -679,6 +679,22 @@ foreach my $tool ( @vc_tools ) {
    );
 }
 
+my $should_remove_uuid_file;
+my $home_uuid_file = $ENV{"HOME"} . "/.percona-toolkit.uuid";
+
+if ( ! -e $home_uuid_file ) {
+    $should_remove_uuid_file = 1;
+}
+
+my $uuid = VersionCheck::get_uuid();
+is (
+    length($uuid),
+    36,
+    "Have a valid UUID4",
+);
+
+unlink $home_uuid_file if $should_remove_uuid_file;
+
 # #############################################################################
 # Done.
 # #############################################################################