# Privacy and analytics Frame Control sends anonymous analytics to [PostHog](https://posthog.com) (US cloud) so the maintainer can see how many people use it, which features matter and where installs fail. You choose how much in **Privacy & updates**, the last panel on the page. `ui/frame_telemetry.py` is the whole implementation. ## The three levels | Level | Default | What it sends | |---|---|---| | Anonymous usage statistics | On, after a notice on first run | The events in the table below | | Share compatibility results | Off | Your Android compatibility reports and tests | | Send error details | Off | Scrubbed error messages and tracebacks | Nothing is sent until the first-run notice has been shown. The notice's **Share more to help fix problems** button turns on the second and third levels together. Either can be turned off later. Turning a level off deletes that level's events that haven't been sent yet. **Show what's been sent** in the panel lists the last 50 events that left your computer, exactly as they were sent. ## Anonymous - Events carry a random id, made when Frame Control first runs and kept in its data folder (`telemetry/settings.json`). It isn't derived from your computer, account or network. To get a new one, delete that file. - Events are sent without person profiles (`$process_person_profile: false`) and without location lookup (`$geoip_disable: true`). Each carries a placeholder address (`$ip: 0.0.0.0`), so PostHog stores that instead of yours. - Every event includes the app version, OS name (macOS, Windows or Linux), CPU architecture and Python version. ## Usage events | Event | When | Properties besides the common ones | |---|---|---| | `app_installed` | First run | | | `app_updated` | First run of a new version | `from_version` | | `app_opened` | At most once a day | | | `frame_connected` | The first time a SteamOS build is seen | `steamos_build`, `steamos_version` | | `tab_viewed` | The first click on each tab in a session | `tab` | | `install_finished` | Any install finishes, working or not | `kind` (apk, flatpak, steam, title, web), `ok`, `seconds`, `error_category`, `installer_code`, and see below | | `update_offered`, `update_started`, `update_failed` | The update banner | `to_version`, `error_category` | `install_finished` never includes a file name, path or error message. An error becomes one category from a fixed list (for example `apk_wrong_abi` or `frame_unreachable`), plus Android's own `INSTALL_FAILED_…` code when there is one. It names what was installed only when that's already public: - F-Droid catalogue apps: `package`. Never the version, since a local build can reuse a catalogue app's package name - Flathub apps: `flatpak_id` - Steam games: `steam_appid` - A sideloaded title: only its runtime (Proton or Linux) Any other APK is sent as `catalog: false`, with no name. ## Compatibility results (opt-in) Each report becomes a `compat_report` event with the fields the Report dialog shows: package, version, result or rating, your notes, how it was run, and the SteamOS and Lepton builds. Before sending: - the notes, app name and version are scrubbed like error messages (see below) - the APK's source is kept only if it's `F-Droid` or the public host name of a download link (`https://example.com/…`). File names, user names, passwords, ports, paths, IP addresses and local host names are dropped When you turn this on, reports you made earlier on this computer are shared too. The maintainer's `python3 ui/frame_compat_db.py sync` copies these events into the compatibility database, marked `via=community…`. It takes at most 30 per reporter per day. ## Error details (opt-in) `$exception` events carry an error message, the Frame Control file, line and function it came from, and the request that failed (for example `POST /api/android install`). Before anything is sent, the message is scrubbed: - your home folder becomes `~`, and any user name becomes `` - IP and MAC addresses, email addresses, `.local`, `.lan` and Tailscale host names, Steam ids, SSH and PEM keys, API tokens and long hex strings are replaced - URLs are cut down to their scheme and a public host name, or ``. User names, passwords, ports, paths and queries are dropped - `token=`, `key=`, `password=` and similar values are replaced The same error is sent at most once every 10 minutes. ## Report a problem **Report a problem** is the warning-sign button in the header, also in the Privacy panel and under **Help → Report a Problem…**. It sends the report privately to Frame Control's PostHog project as a `problem_report` event, the same way as the analytics above, so only the maintainer can read it and nothing is published. It works whatever the analytics settings are, because the person sends it deliberately. The report has the kind, title and text you wrote, a short reference shown after sending, and the diagnostics below. Your email address goes with it only if you tick **The maintainer may contact me with follow-up questions** (the report then carries `contact_followup: true`); it's filled in from **Contact email** below when you've agreed there. It has its own random id, so it isn't linked to your analytics events. With that box ticked, the address also becomes your **Contact email** below with follow-up questions ticked, so you remove it there like any other. If it's a different address from the one saved there, it replaces it, and update notices stop until you turn them on again (they were agreed for the old address); the form says so before you send. The report then also carries this copy's contact id and change number (`contact_id`, `contact_rev`, see below), so removing or changing the address later takes back the follow-up permission given with the report too. With **Include diagnostics** ticked (the default), the report adds: - the app version and whether it's a built app - the OS, its release and CPU, and the Python version - the Frame's SteamOS build, if it has connected since the app started - which analytics levels are on **Also include recent activity and the server log** is off by default, because those lines can name files and apps. When ticked, it adds the newest Activity lines and server log lines, without the request lines. Everything is scrubbed like error details and limited to what fits in the report. Environment details are kept first, then the newest lines. **Show exactly what's included** shows the snapshot that will be sent, and later activity isn't added to it. If PostHog can't be reached, **Copy report** puts the whole report on the clipboard. The maintainer reads reports on the Frame Control dashboard in PostHog, or with `python3 ui/frame_report.py inbox [days]`, which uses the same personal API key as `frame_compat_db.py sync`. ## Contact email (optional) Frame Control never needs an email address. If you'd like to leave one, there are two separate choices, both off until you tick them: | Choice | What it's for | |---|---| | **Email me about Frame Control updates** | Occasional notices about new releases and updates | | **The maintainer may contact me with follow-up questions** | Questions about problem reports you send, mostly | You're asked once, in a bar at the top of the page, after the Frame has connected for the first time, and never in the same visit as the first-run privacy notice. **No thanks** hides it for good, and it isn't shown again even if you ignore it. **Contact email** in **Privacy & updates** is where you add, change or remove the address and either choice at any time. **What's sent, and where.** The address and the two choices go privately to Frame Control's PostHog project, the same place as problem reports, as a `contact_consent` event with `email`, `updates`, `followup`, `action` (`set` or `withdraw`) and the common properties above. Only the maintainer can read that project, and nothing in it is published or shared. It's sent only when you save, or when you send a problem report with follow-up questions ticked, whatever the analytics settings are, because you chose to. With a report, the address and choices are saved before the report is sent and stay saved if it fails; like any change, they're sent as soon as PostHog can be reached. It carries its own random contact id, not the analytics id, so it isn't linked to your usage events, and a `rev` number that goes up with each change, so the newest choice always wins. Like everything else sent, it's listed under **Show what's been sent**. On this computer the address and choices are kept in `contact/contact.json` in Frame Control's data folder. An address is only kept with at least one choice ticked. **Removing it.** **Remove my email** (or clearing the address and saving) deletes it from this computer, including from the **Show what's been sent** log (in earlier contact events and problem reports), and sends a `withdraw` event with no address in it. The maintainer's list only uses the newest event from each copy, so from then on the address isn't listed for either choice. Unticking one choice works the same way for that choice. This also covers problem reports you sent from this copy with follow-up questions ticked: if your newest choice since the report (by change number, not the clock) no longer agrees to follow-up questions at that address, the maintainer's inbox shows the permission as withdrawn and leaves the address out. If you're offline, the change waits on this computer and is sent when PostHog can be reached. The earlier event stays in PostHog until its data retention removes it; to have it deleted sooner, ask the maintainer (for example in a problem report). Nothing sends email yet: this only records who agreed to what. The maintainer lists the addresses with `python3 ui/frame_report.py contacts [updates|followup]`, which uses the same personal API key as `inbox`. ## Turning it all off Untick the boxes, or set `DO_NOT_TRACK=1` or `FRAME_CONTROL_TELEMETRY=0` in the environment that starts Frame Control. A copy run from a source checkout never sends analytics unless `FRAME_CONTROL_TELEMETRY=1` is set. These switches cover the analytics above. A problem report or a contact email is sent only because you pressed its Send or Save button, so those still go when you choose to send them (a contact change saved while offline is sent by itself once PostHog can be reached); if you don't, nothing is sent. ## Update checks The desktop app asks GitHub for the latest release shortly after starting, then every 6 hours: the latest release's `update.json` on GitHub, or `api.github.com/repos/saphid/frame-control/releases/latest` if that fails. Those requests carry no id. To stop it, set `FRAME_CONTROL_NO_UPDATE_CHECK=1`. See [releasing.md](releasing.md).