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Data collection and privacy

In this document we discuss what data SmartFoxServer 3 collects during its activity, where it is stored and how to delete it, if necessary. We will also briefly discuss a few best practices that improve the overall security of the collected data.

Log files

By default SmartFoxServer 3 logs the server activity under the server/logs/ path. These files contain data such as the connection and login time of a certain user, disconnection events, info about Rooms being created and destroyed etc.

No sensitive data is ever stored by SmartFoxServer 3 in the log files, however personal data such as the IP address and nickname are collected and stored.

The log files can be removed by deleting all smartfox.log.* files under the server/logs/ folder.

Performance data

By default SmartFoxServer 3 collects performance metrics in a local database, located under server/data/sfs/. The data includes: cpu and ram usage, network traffic stats and internal message queue stats. The sole purpose of these data points is to provide a history of the server health and performance which can be consulted by the server admins via the AdminTool's Dashboard.

Under no circumstances is this data ever transmitted, transferred or moved outside the local folder it resides. Additionally the collection of performance metrics can be disabled entirely via the AdminTool > Server Configurator > Analytics.

Analytics data

In addition to the above metrics SmartFoxServer can also locally collect other data in a database located under: server/data/analytics/

The data points include:

  • connection (ip address, duration)
  • login (user name, country based on geo location)
  • logout
  • room creation
  • room join
  • room removal

The sole purpose of this collection is to present usage statistics via the AdminTool > Analytics module, which provides insights on traffic, user visits, and general usage metrics.

Under no circumstances is this data ever transmitted, transferred or moved outside the local folder it resides. Additionally the collection of Analytics data can be disabled entirely via the AdminTool > Server Configurator > Analytics.

License Server

SmartFoxServer 3 can connect to a central License Server to validate commercial licenses. This is not the case when the license is file-based or when using the free Community Edition, available for download on our website.

When running a commercial license SmartFoxServer will communicate through an HTTPS connection with our License Server, hosted on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud. Besides the IP address of the caller, no other personal or sensitive data is ever transmitted to our License Server.