Data collection policy
Why does JIRA collect anonymous data usage?
When you enable collection of usage data for an instance of JIRA (and certain Atlassian add-ons for JIRA), a variety of information about events occurring in that instance is collected to help us improve the user experience. Our goal is to capture these events to help us understand the features that are being used and how best to improve them. Most events are triggered as a result of a user interacting with the software, though some events are collected during background processing. Collecting this data often also involves collecting information about the configuration related to the features being used. The common example is an event triggered when a user clicks to invoke a particular function, which in turn would include information about the configuration related to that function.
As part of our data collection, we typically capture the hostname from which an event originated, but we do not associate the event with an identifiable user. This is what we mean by "anonymous" data collection. We use the data we collect to determine the features that are being used and how best to improve them. All the data we collect is subject to the terms of our Privacy Policy and our End User Agreement.
Enabling/disabling data collection in JIRA
During JIRA setup, we ask you whether or not you wish to help us improve JIRA by allowing us to capture anonymous usage data. This choice can be changed at any time by logging in to JIRA with administration privileges and navigating to the following location:
Administration > System > General Configuration > Enable Atlassian analytics
This only applies to the downloaded version from JIRA 6.1 onwards. Previous versions of JIRA (in and of themselves) did not capture any usage data and thus do not have this administration setting.
As an important caveat, however, please note that some Atlassian add-ons that are compatible with JIRA versions prior to 6.1 have their own analytics settings (listed further below). The above JIRA setting does not change the analytics option for any these add-ons. The JIRA add-ons that collect analytics (apart from the data collection in JIRA itself) is described below.
Another important caveat is that this setting does not apply to our OnDemand service. Data collection is permitted and described in our Privacy Policy and End User Agreement and cannot be disabled for OnDemand.
Atlassian add-ons for JIRA that collect anonymous data
Atlassian add-ons for JIRA are also able to collect anonymous data in the same way that JIRA itself collects anonymous data. As Atlassian is always looking for ways to improve the total JIRA experience, this section also covers future add-ons that have not been built or released.
Prior to JIRA 6.1, the Atlassian add-ons for JIRA listed below had their own individual analytics setting to determine if they captured anonymous data or not. Instructions on how to disable them are described in the section below. Instructions on how to disable future add-ons that are compatible with releases prior to JIRA 6.1 will also be added to this section as applicable.
- JIRA Agile (formerly known as GreenHopper)
- JIRA Capture (formerly known as Bonfire)
- JIRA Service Desk
- JIRA Importers
- InProduct Translation
Enabling/disabling data collection in add-ons
Anonymous data collection can be disabled by logging in to JIRA with administration privileges and navigating to the following locations:
JIRA Agile (formerly known as GreenHopper)
Administration > Add-Ons > JIRA Agile > JIRA Agile Labs > Analytics
JIRA Capture (formerly known as Bonfire)
Administration > Add-Ons > JIRA Capture > JIRA Capture Settings > Analytics
JIRA Service Desk
Administration > Add-Ons > JIRA Service Desk > Configuration > Analytics
JIRA Importers
Administration > System > Import & Export > External System Import > Stop collecting my information
InProduct Translation
Administration > Add-Ons > Translation Administration > Google Analytics
Data Collection Methods
JIRA uses two different methods to collect usage data:
- Atlassian Analytics
- Google Analytics
Atlassian Analytics
At this time, the Atlassian infrastructure to capture usage data is not yet built. We plan to have this ready by late 2013 or early 2014. Atlassian plans to store all the JIRA system and user events in a file under the JIRA home directory. This file will then be periodically sent to Atlassian and then emptied. If there is no internet connection available, then no data will be sent.
As the Atlassian Analytics infrastructure does not exist yet, this section will be updated with the most accurate information when our system becomes live.
Google Analytics
Atlassian also uses a service provided by Google to capture anonymous usage data; this service is Google Analytics.
The data captured from Google Analytics is stored within Google for Atlassian staff to access. By default Google Analytics captures (among other things) the number of page hits, how much time is spent on each page, where users come from and leave to, demographics, and browser information.