Global analytics?

[core]

Hallo!
I’ve noticed that Anytype collects global shortcuts and mouse movements. I understand how useful this information can be inside the app itself - however, collecting this information globally when the app is not focused is another story.
I’ve already blackholed the Sentry domain but just want to know why global collection was ever enabled.

[Erindale]

Can you clarify what you mean by globally for us non-tech folk?
Do you mean it’s collecting data just by running in the background? Is it just when there’s a window open or when minimised as well? Do you know what data? eg keyboard inputs?

[Flip]

From the conversation on discord it sounds to me like it’s just a supposition. The Requesting Privacy Policy + more info on data security - #18 by anton doesn’t show those info being collected.

[core]

I noticed too big of a correlation between my mouse movements and network activity by Anytype. As with everything, I’m not perfect and it might just be a total coincidence. In any case, by “global” i do mean while it was not focused/minimized, but as long as the app was open I noticed this activity.

This whole issue could be avoided if there was even a little bit of transparency about what is being collected.

Edit: If you’re on Linux, a really easy way of verifying this is by analyzing syscalls made by the Anytype binary. Minimize the window, then move your mouse around - you should see a dramatic increase in network syscalls when your mouse moves, and the flood stops when you stop moving your mouse.

[Angelo]

No, we do not record any mouse movements. Only events, as was cited in the above response by @Flip from our Privacy Policy Draft:

Product Analytics

Each user is assigned a unique Anytype ID when they install the app, which consists of a string of numbers and letters that cannot personally identify you. Based on these IDs, we are able to observe product metrics such as session length, number of sessions, and number of Objects, Types, and Templates created.

Our analytics don’t reveal any actual content, only the actions you perform in Anytype.

Here, you can find the privacy policy of our app analytics provider:

• Amplitude Analytics Privacy Policy
  

Once our open beta is launched, you will be able to self-host software and by default the analytics will be disabled.

We’ll look into the possible cause but Amplitude sends their events in batches so it shouldn’t spike network activity.

[core]

Hmm, not sure what could be causing such a close correlation then. Maybe sentry is doing some weird things in the background. Anyways, thanks for the quick reply.

[Angelo]

Yeah hard to say, maybe heat-mapping ? We don’t receive any data about mouse movement on our end, but we will check it out

[Razor]

My network tab in developer tools is empty when I move mouse and there is no code on my side that can send anything to network on mouse movement, both sentry and amplitude are set up with event batching so they send things when certain thresholds are met. Anyway thanks for noticing, we will try to figure it out eventually.