Privacy

Telemetry collection

Since version 1.11.0, some basic telemetry data is collected by the app.

Why is telemetry collected

The telemetry is collected to be able to focus development on features that are actually being used. I'm not interested in any other data.

What is NOT being collected

Before listing what is collected, let's list what stuff I'm explicitly NOT collecting

• Device / task / any names that you are able to customize in either Homey, the ESP unit or your network
• Personal identifiable information
  • Like MAC address, Wifi information, Homey ID, User data and other stuff
  • Note: A (semi) unique identifier is created by the app for your Homey. It is only used by this app and cannot be linked to anybody without access to all Homeys
• Full IP address
  • Matomo's privacy features are used with default settings; Only the first two bytes of the (four byte) IP address is kept
  • Note: The webserver does keep it's logs (with full IP address) for a default of 14 days
• Sensor values
• Flowcard use
• GPIO usage

What IS being collected

An up-to-date list of collected 'dimensions' is kept in: this file

Aside from that list:

• Homey language
• The first two bytes of a four bytes of your IP address are logged by Matomo
• My webserver runs default NGINX logging and keeps the data (which includes your full IP address) for two weeks
• A unique ID is created by the app and kept on Homey. It is used to prevent counting things multiple times.
  • The ID is only used by this app and cannot be linked to anybody without access to all Homeys
• On an app crash, Homey will automatically send a diagnostics rapport (this is the case for all apps installed through the official store)
• Errors logged by the app (This less information then send by a diagnostics report)

If you have any questions about the use of a value or the telemetry in general, drop me a message on the Homey forums

When is what being collected?

Information is send at these events:

• On app start (all values)
• On adding and removing a device or unit (device/'task'/unit information)
• A simple ping once a day and on app close
• Telemetry update once per week (all values)
• On memwarn en cpuwarn with the amount of previous warnings and configured maximum warnings

How long is data being kept

Full IP address is kept for at most two weeks (after which, my NGINX logs are rotated) I don't have a firm grasp on the workings of Matomo yet. I plan on keeping detailed information for a year, after which only cumulative data is kept. Keeping cumulative data is only for my own curiosity about changing stats over longer periods of time so if I can't figure out how that works, all data will be removed after roughly a year of being collected.

Who does the logging and how is it done?

Let's be honest, nobody likes being tracked. That's why I try keep the data collected to a minimum. Instead of sending all logging data to the likes of Google or other cloud services, I perform the data collection myself. The collection is done by the open source Matomo software (formerly known as Piwik) on a personal VPS running at TransIP.

Both me and the server reside in the EU (or more specifically, The Netherlands.)

I could not find a way to proxy the traffic though Athom's cloudservers or I would have done so to prevent collecting IP adresses at all.

If you have any questions about the telemetry collecting, drop me a message on the Homey forums