📊 In App Tracking & Analytics
When you log into Acter, you will be prompted to configure which kind of data we can collect to improve the service of the App. This falls under several different sections and purposes, that we want to explain in detail here. Those are as follows:
Whatever we track, for us privacy is the at the ❤️ of it. We only ever track what we need to in order to achieve the required objective and in the most anonymized way possible.
We will never read or process the content of any of your messages or any data sent over end to end encrypted channels!
General Network Application Operations & Security
Matrix, the federated network that Acter is built upon, requires the tracking of certain metadata for proper operation. In particular this includes your username, login details and associated third-party ways to connect (most notably email), if you configured them, the session you are logged in with (shared under the "Sessions" tab in your settings for your control) and which rooms an account is active in and what devices push notifications should go to. As well as certain metadata about the rooms, as their name, avatar and whether they are encrypted.
All this data is stored on our server if you use the default acter.global server. If you use a custom or self-hosted home server most of that is split up and only stored on that server. Only part of the room-user-connection-structure is shared with other servers, who host users that, too, participate in those rooms.
Aggregated User Statistic
Out of that information we compile aggregate user service statistics, in particular the MAU, Monthly Active Users statistic, which tells us how many users have actively used our server in the last 30 days.
Tech Support and troubleshooting
If you ask us to trouble shoot or contact support to help us with some other technical issue. We might be using the Synapse-Admin tool to inspect some of that metadata, like which devices are online or where push notifications are supposed to go to, in order to resolve the problem.
Crash Analytics
If you enable the crash analytics, which recommend you do unless you have safety concerns that require to not do that, crash reports will be sent to our sentry server (currently still the hosted version, but we are working on sending it to a self-hosted variant instead). These crash reports are sent automatically upon technical problems and crashes and include device and location information to help us trouble shoot and debug the problem. They do not contain any user specific information and are only used to resolve these issue through development and further updates to the app.
Basic Telemetry
By enabled basic telemetry you allow us to gather some basic usage pattern information and sent that over for aggregation of larger statistics and trends. This includes how often you are using Acter, and for how long, the total number of messages and notifications you are sending and receiving, the server you are using, the number of spaces and chat rooms you are in and how large these are as well as what areas of activity you have stated you are using Acter for (in the setup guide).
This helps us get a basic understand who is using the app, what general patterns of usage are most common and thus helps us understand better how to improve Acter for those cases. In aggregate, together the above mentioned MAUs it also helps us to make a case for funders to continue to sponsor development.
This information is aggregated on the client and sent in regular intervals to our servers hosted in Germany.
App Analytics
With this pseudonymous tracking of which screens and features you are using, we try to understand what is actually being used and how. This helps us identify features that are confusing or misunderstand or not used at all, as well as allows us to confirm hypothesis about usage of features. Through sharing this information with us, you give us important insights into what we need to improve upon and what are the most commons pathways of usage.
As this is per person, the information is connected to a one-way-hash of the user id which is then again one-way-hashed on our service (making backtracing incredibly annoying). We are collecting this information via a self-hosted matomo instance, which we also use to create aggregated reports about.
Research
We are working together with researchers to better understand the social structures of movements and the role social media and messaging plays in them. If you are willing to participate in studies for such research projects, please activate this flag. This will share your user id with us as a person willing to engage in such studies and we will contact you once an applicable study might be starting that you are asked to consent you at that time.
No studies are taking place unless you actively consented, even if you agree to take part in research studies here.