Sensitive information?

Topics brought up by the TimeTrex open source community.
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jzawacki
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Nov 17, 2008 10:44 am

Sensitive information?

Post by jzawacki »

I noticed some code that was posting company information to google-analytics.com. I understand the need to track a software packages use, but what you may deem generic information, others may deem sensitive. Such as the host IP and or company name.

I don't want to go through and rip all this code out, as I understand how useful it can be. I just ask that you evaluate the information you are collecting from a users (read that as network/security admins) point of view.
shaunw
Posts: 7839
Joined: Tue Sep 19, 2006 2:22 pm

Post by shaunw »

All data collected by Google Analytics is kept strictly private and used solely for improving TimeTrex by tailoring it specially to countries/states/provinces that use it the most and improving the user interface and how users navigate TimeTrex. In some circumstances it is also used to determine which areas get the tax table updates first.

While we don't recommend it, you can disable Google Analytics completely by adding the following line to your timetrex.ini.php file under the [other] section:

Code: Select all

[other]
disable_google_analytics = TRUE
jzawacki
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Nov 17, 2008 10:44 am

Post by jzawacki »

That's good to know. Though, I'd prefer not to disable it. I have no reason to not provide you with valid information, I would prefer to select what information is being provided. I see no valid reason for you (or anyone) to know the IP scheme of my internal network.

But, I will now disable it on my sandbox install, as it would be providing bogus information anyway. Thanks.
Nox
Posts: 65
Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2008 1:20 pm

Post by Nox »

I am also concerned about what information is being transmitted.
Also, from a network utilization standpoint, how often does this report back?

I am using TimeTrex in a sandbox environment currently, but if it is chatty (like every minute or something obscene) I would need to disable or scale it back before putting it into production.
shaunw
Posts: 7839
Joined: Tue Sep 19, 2006 2:22 pm

Post by shaunw »

Google Analytics is the same system that is used for basic web analytics that the vast majority of major web sites on the internet also use. (including www.TimeTrex.com and forums.timetrex.com)

In 99.9% of the cases you shouldn't notice a difference with it enabled or not.
jzawacki
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Nov 17, 2008 10:44 am

Post by jzawacki »

Yeah, network bandwidth isn't a concern, it is really minimal data. It's not a timed reporting tool, it is added to the footer of pages. As they are loaded, they report information. So, the true answer to your question depends on how often you are clicking around within the system.
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