Calling LDClient.start() without a context creates an anonymous context that is not marked as anonymous

[Gleeble]

Describe the bug
We recently encountered a problem where we had an influx of new MAU usage but there were no anonymous contexts, just a bunch of contexts that just had a UUID key. After investigation we found an application that was calling start() on the LDClient without providing a context, leading to a great deal of non-anonymous anonymous contexts.

To reproduce
Calling LDClient.start(config: config, startWaitSeconds: 0) in the code to start the LaunchDarkly connection

Expected behavior
We would expect that this would lead to a context with no information and a random key being generated that is marked as anonymous.

Logs
If applicable, add any log output related to your problem.

Library version
9.12.3 (I think)

XCode and Swift version
Unknown

Platform the issue occurs on
iPhone (I assume)

Additional context
I'm just a middle man for this error coming up, consulted and helped investigate but I have not worked with this application directly, but I can consult the team as necessary.

[tanderson-ld]

Hi @Gleeble, thanks for reporting this issue. I'll dig in a bit to double check the logic in the code.

Some additional info on Anonymous Contexts and this exerpt which is relevant:

Anonymous contexts still count toward your limit for monthly contexts or monthly active users (MAU).

[tanderson-ld]

I think you have identified an issue introduced in v8 when we added LDContext support replacing the deprecated LDUser.

In v7, the LDUser constructor invoked was setting itself to anonymous and used here.

in v8, the LDContext constructor defaults anonymous to false here.

I need to verify this with some unit tests and evaluate the possible impact of fixing this. It has been there for some time now and other customers may have come to expect this subtle deviance.

A workaround for yourself would be to provide the context and use LDContextBuilder. LDContextBuilder().build().get() does return a user context with a generated key that is anonymous.

[tanderson-ld]

Logged internally as 1464.