saphid--frame-control/docs/privacy.md

Privacy and analytics

Frame Control sends anonymous analytics to PostHog (EU 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). The PostHog project is also set to discard client IP addresses.
• 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 <user>
• 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 <url>. 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 files a public issue on GitHub through the website's feedback service, so no GitHub account is needed. It works whatever the analytics settings are, because the person sends it deliberately.

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 issue. 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 the service can't be reached, the dialog offers Copy report and Open on GitHub instead, a prefilled issue.

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 anything unless FRAME_CONTROL_TELEMETRY=1 is set.

Update checks

The desktop app asks GitHub for the latest release shortly after starting, then every 6 hours (api.github.com/repos/saphid/frame-control/releases/latest). That request carries no id. To stop it, set FRAME_CONTROL_NO_UPDATE_CHECK=1. See releasing.md.