Unconfirmed Tracking
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M
Michael
The App connects to tracking services (at least app-measurement.com) before asking me whether that's ok. This violates the GDPR for us EU users and does not make me trust a browser.
It's also unclear why a login is required (no other browser does so) - this actually made me delete the App before trying it.
Dom
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Dear Michael,
Logging is not required. You can use Beam locally.
Logging in just allows you to sync your notes in an end to end encrypted way.
Concerning tracking, here is what we anonymously track through firebase:
- onboarding steps completion to finetune it.
- omnibox health: chosen query result types (history,note or google query), query status (completed/failed), number of typed characters,rank of clicked item in suggestions to improve efficiency of presented results.
- App update and app startup.
You’re absolutely right, we need to clarify this asap in our Terms of Services.
Thanks
Dom
We'll specify it more clearly in https://public.beamapp.co/beam/note/1085ef50-2df0-4ac6-b8af-9c0b10d82b34/Privacy-Policy
in section 5.3.
M
Michael
Dom: Thanks for your reply, I must have overlooked a way to use Beam without logging.
The tracking you listed seems absolutely reasonable, although asking first would intuitively make me trust Beam more. It never feels great when Little Snitch has lots of connection popups after launching a new App.
I'll give it another try!
Dom
Michael: To be honest, it says "sign up later" and not "use locally" (which might be unclear for most people) but it's there. We can definitely improve the wording and be clearer about the options you have. If you didn't get it or see it, most people won't.
Thanks again!