992487 - Privacy-Policy Review Request:Firefox OS activation collection of information to improve security updates, and app functionality

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Privacy Graveyard :: Product Review, task)

Description

[Ravi Dandu]

This is a request for Privacy review of activation ping. Information on the ping is at https://wiki.mozilla.org/FirefoxOS/Metrics. This wiki page including detailed information on how activation works, and requirements for its functionality.

Bugs: 
969101: Bug for Engg on device side
986701: Server side deletion of ping id on server info
980920: Legal bug

Comment 1

[Alina Hua]

Notes from my discussions with Ravi this week: 

Data collected with the Activation Ping: 
- Locale
- Carrier
- Fx OX version
- Ping ID (More info in bug 986701) - to be deleted within 24 hrs and once deleted, there will be no other unique ping from the device
- mcc (mobile country code)
- mnc (mobile network code)
- Screen height/width

Data to be shared with 3rd party app developers: 
- Screen height/width, and possibly, device pixel ratio and release number and number of devices (TBD). No other third parties will receive info from the Activation Ping.

Data Storage:
- Data from the ping will be going into the Telemetry database.

--
Ravi - The example payload and URL on the wiki shows that "spn" (service principal name?) is also collected. Could you clarify what this is/does? 

I reviewed the related bugs and documentation - no privacy concerns noted.

Paul / Jonas - Do you have any questions / concerns? Please comment, if any. Thanks!

Comment 2

[Ravi Dandu]

SPN is Service Provider Name. It is name of the Operator providing the network service. It is listed as "Carrier" in the discussion notes.

Comment 3

[Alina Hua]

Ravi - Thanks for the clarification. I'm closing and resolving this bug.

Comment 4

[Alina Hua]

For reference, I'm copying over the description from Ravi from Comment 9 in bug 857163 that describes the difference between Activation Ping and ADI Ping: 

--
This bug is talking about the current ping (ADI ping) which is already in devices from 1.1.

The new (Activation ping) is separate from this. 
Engg work: 969101
Privacy review: 992487

They are two different pings as their goals are different. Activation ping is to track total number of devices are sold. ADI ping is to figure the current devices that are connecting regularly on wifi to see if they need App updates.

Details on the need for Activation Ping in addition to ADI ping:
  Product planning needs the information about devices sold (ActivationPing). Current ADI ping approximates devices active on a certain day on WiFi. Difference gives us an idea of retention of product, and engagement of user.This will help us focus on what is causing the dropoff, investigate why certain markets are doing better/worse, and making data-driven investments in improving the retention 
    
Information difference: Activation Ping has additional information on Build IDs, Country, Operator, OEM, Version of HW, Screen Size, Screen Height, Width, Pixel density. While the previous ADI ping contains the model of device. Need the additional information to figure out which geographic areas/partners we should work with to push security updates. Also, helps give App developers the various screen sizes/aspect ratios to be supported.

Reliability and Cost difference:
    From previous versions, Partners removed ADI ping due to cost concern. Activation Ping is sent once in lifetime of device, which should have allay cost concerns.

Comment 5

[Ravi Dandu]

Here is a summary of the bugs for activation ping work: 
1)Privacy review: bug 992487
2)Legal review: bug 980920 
3)Engg work is tracked by: 
   3.1) bug 969101 (device side): [Metrics] Separate FxOS pings from Webapp updates
   3.2) bug 986701 (server side): FxOS Metrics: Delete PingID from server info, within a fixed time period