Naughty Ubiquiti!

[Sheridan]

Looks like Unifi devices are phoning home without your consent!

 

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/11/07/ubiquiti_networks_phone_home/

[Primus]

From the horse's mouth:

 

Hi All-

 

We want to help respond to concerns voiced over the recently added phone home/performance data collection feature in UniFi and want to explain what this feature is and the future plans for this.

 

What data is being collected:

 

We have started to gather crashes and other critical events strictly for the purpose of improving our products. Any data collected is completely anonymized, GDPR compliant, transmitted using end-to-end encryption and encrypted at rest. The collection of this data does not and should not ever impact performance of devices.

 

Why we are collecting this data:

 

The purpose of this data is to help us better fine-tune and improve device performance for all UniFi users so that we can ensure that everyone gets the best possible experience from their UniFi devices. With this data we can measure and optimize improvements and more quickly identify and fix any regressions.

 

How will this affect you?

 

For all our users, this data will help us improve the overall experience of using UniFi devices. As noted above, all the data we collect is used only for optimizing performance of the devices/software.

 

All data is gathered in accordance with GDPR requirements and as permitted by our Privacy Policy. No data we collect is shared or accessible to third parties.

 

If you do not wish to participate/provide this data, we will add an opt-out button in upcoming versions that will make it easy to opt-out of providing this data. In the meantime, you can block traffic from UniFi devices to trace.svc.ui.com.

 

For any further questions related to this, please review our EULA, Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

[FishCustard]

IMO, regardless of whether they're doing it in a GDPR-compliant way (which they certainly seem to be doing), users should always have the right to opt-out.

[Primus]

Agreed, however I thought this only related to beta firmware - has this firmware actually moved to production release?

[FishCustard]

Ahh, now, if it's beta firmware that people opted in to installing, that's a different matter as the opt-in agreement probably covered this.

[Primus]

I might be wrong - but the first reports I saw related to beta firmware.

[AJWhite1970]

AFAIK, yes it's only the beta software and the fact it reports crashes is buried in the small print. Any of the release code doesn't have that feature enabled

[Accura2k7]

Doesn't GDPR explicitly state an opt-out option is a no no?

[synaesthesia]

Was gonna say, nothing like that coming from our kit so was assuming it only applied to beta. At this point I do wonder what's worse, just not mentioning it like this until questioned, or burying it in 56 pages of small print designed specifically to not be read (fruity)

[bald_pig]

When they say GDPR compliant, I think they mean there's no personal data, so consent wouldn't be an opt-in opt-out thing would it? Just like you can't opt-out of Windows 10 diagnostic data.

[oiam_fs]

i don't see an issue with this as long as its technical analytical data Edited November 22, 2019 by oiam_fs

[supportman]

Am I the only one who thinks stuff like this is a good idea?

 

I think its great to see a company compiling logs and reports to better their products.

[Jawloms]

Am I the only one who thinks stuff like this is a good idea?

 

I think its great to see a company compiling logs and reports to better their products.

 

I think most people would see it as a great idea, the issue is they didn't tell anyone they were doing it. No-one is accusing them of sniffing inappropriate data or anything underhand, it's just we like full transparency.