Usage Tracking
Having a plugin on WordPress.org is amazing, how else can a free plugin reach 20 million downloads? But something you don’t get much of is data. We know the EWWW Image Optimizer has had millions of downloads to date with millions actively using it. But it isn't like we can send out a survey to the millions of sites using EWWW IO, so what can we do?
Certainly, we value user feedback, and we make many decisions based on our interaction with EWWW IO users every day. We even have a Feedback site so that folks can submit feature requests and vote on them. With some decisions though, there's simply no substitute for hard data.
To that end, we've made it possible for site owners to enable usage tracking from within the WordPress admin area. This feature sends non-sensitive data about your site, how EWWW IO is installed and how it is being used.
Important
Nothing sensitive is stored, not even the URL of your site. We do not track or store any personal or business critical data from you or your clients. Tracking data is sent automatically to our servers once you opt-in and then once a week from there on out.
How to opt-out
Perhaps you agree to share the non-sensitive data but then for some reason wish to opt-out. No problem, you can do so by simply un-checking the option under the Contribute tab in the EWWW IO settings.
What exactly is tracked?
Below is the list of the data submitted:
- Theme
- WordPress version
- WordPress locale
- PHP memory limit
- Webserver software
- PHP version
- multisite vs. single site
- operating system
- PHP max_execution_time and memory_limit settings
- List of installed plugins
- Total number of images
- Total amount of savings achieved
- EWWW Image Optimizer settings
In the case of the settings, any option that might have site-specific data is reduced to a simple boolean (true/false) value to let us know that you use the setting.
This is all done in the name of making EWWW IO better. By seeing how you are using EWWW IO and what your setup looks like we are able to make decisions that lead to better features, and more helpful documentation.
Opt-in and get free stuff
If you already opted-in, you'll find a discount code on the Contribute tab of the EWWW IO settings.
Please note that tracking is not permitted from local machines (localhost) or development machines – only sites with valid domains will be tracked.
Thanks for reading this
Thank you for your time and I hope you will join us in making EWWW IO more awesome. If you don't, no hard feelings, and Happy Optimizing!