The invention discloses a MDT (Minimized Driver-Test) method, a terminal information collecting method, a terminal and a network element, and belongs to the technical field of communication. The method comprises the following steps: during the process of activating a MDT task, verifying willingness type of a user corresponding to a selected terminal by the network element; sending a corresponding MDT task activating instruction to the selected terminal according to a verifying result of the willingness type; and after receiving a corresponding measuring data reported by the selected terminal, executing a corresponding operation according to the verifying result of the willingness type. According to the MDT method provided by the embodiment of the invention, the process of verifying the willingness of the user is added to the process of network detection; the MDT or terminal information collecting task is controlled and executed according to the willingness of the user; the user experience is fully considered; and the situation of forcing a user terminal to report personal information without the permission of the user is avoided and the user experience is increased.