What You’ll Learn
- When telemetry is active (Early Access only)
- What data is collected and how it’s used
- What data is never collected
- How to disable telemetry
When Telemetry Is Active
Telemetry is only active in the following cases:- MainWP v6 prerelease builds
- The Early Access extension
Telemetry is not used in stable releases. If you are not running an Early Access build, no telemetry data is sent.
Why We Collect Telemetry
The goal of telemetry in Early Access is to help us:- Understand which environments MainWP is running in
- See how features are being used at a high level
- Identify common errors, failures, and edge cases
- Improve defaults and stability before features reach stable release
Telemetry Platform
We use PostHog to collect and store telemetry data. All telemetry is sent server-side from your MainWP Dashboard. If PostHog is unavailable for any reason, telemetry silently fails and does not affect MainWP functionality.Disabling Telemetry
Telemetry is designed to be easy to disable. When telemetry is disabled:- No events are sent
- No background requests are made
- MainWP behavior is unchanged
Anonymous Tracking
All telemetry is tied to a single anonymous identifier per MainWP installation. This identifier:- Is generated locally
- Does not include domain names or URLs
- Does not include user or site information
- Is not shared across installations
What Data Is Collected
Telemetry focuses on aggregated statistics, configuration snapshots, and sanitized error information. It does not include content or identifying data.
All collected values are counts, booleans, enums, or short sanitized strings.
What Is Not Collected
We want to be very clear about what we do not collect. Telemetry never includes:- Domain names or site URLs
- IP addresses
- Email addresses
- Usernames
- Site titles
- Client names or client details
- Plugin or theme names being updated
- Content from posts, pages, or databases
- Full PHP logs or server paths
- Any personal or customer-identifying data
Error Data Handling
Some telemetry events include error-related information to help debug problems. When error data is sent:- Messages are sanitized before sending
- URLs, emails, usernames, and other sensitive values are removed or masked
- File paths are reduced to paths relative to the plugin, not full server paths
- Only short summaries are included, not full stack traces or log files
Event Frequency and Impact
Telemetry events are sent at low frequency and avoid unnecessary load.
Telemetry requests are lightweight and non-blocking.
Self-Check Checklist
- Understand telemetry is Early Access only
- Know what data is and is not collected
- Telemetry disabled if desired
Related Resources
- Early Access Extension - Pre-release version setup
- What Does Dashboard Insights Track? - Stable release analytics
- Privacy and Data - Privacy overview
