koobas.hobune.stream
Requirements to collect anonymous usage data
I want to collect data like GameAnalytics (asset store) does. Are there special requirements for doing this on Android (Google Play store app), iOS (Apple Store) and Microsoft Store? Or do the default policies of those stores already include something to allow all apps to do this?
I don't want to use any 3rd party code for this, I am thinking I'll just make a few simple HTTP calls (using WWW classes) to my server to post some real basic info. Just want to know basic stuff like how often they run my game and how many levels they complete. I know for a fact that their are tons of bots all over the world downloading apps non-stop from the various stores (to inflate download numbers?), so I don't want to just be happy with the fact that my game got "10,000 downloads" -- I want to know if people actually played it.
It sounds like you want to role your own code but I would recommend Countly. Very easy to use, open source. We installed in on our server and have not looked back. It is also very light weight. I have had no issues publishing in the app store with this functionality.
Did you have to include any privacy policies or anything with your apps, or any "opt in" or "opt out" options? If not, are sure you are covered or just didn't really look in to it (not worried about it)?
Did not include any opt-in/out options. I assume most/a lot of apps already do this. To be honest we did not really consider it a great deal or look into the legalities of it. Not to concerned about it at this point.
I guess worst case you write a privacy policy and provide a link to it on your website etc...
If you want to be in the clear in the US, make sure that you've taken care of COPA compliance. There are related laws in many states, make sure to at least check out the biggies like California and New York.
Thanks all. The COPA stuff seems like it only applies to personal info. I guess maybe there is nothing that prohibits collection of anonymous usage info, although that makes me wonder why so many desktop apps have either opt-in (usually) or opt-out options -- maybe they just have too many lawyers on staff.
The COPA stuff is interesting. I thought this blog post was interesting. Looks like, on iOS at lest you should be OK collecting analytics provided you are not serving up targeted ads and your data is anonymised.
