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Sugar and Pendo Analytics - deactivating it

Julia Weinhold

Hi everyone,

when testing Sugar 9, we (and also our Sugar partner) were very surprised to find that Sugar had implemented the service Pendo Analytics to analyze usage and user interaction with the system.

Why were we surprised? Because it was just communicated very poorly.

After we had discovered the tool when testing Sugar 9.0.0, we found only one mention in Sugar's own resources (this blogpost), which didn't make things clearer, though. We looked for further information in the release notes - but nothing there. That would have been important! As admin or developer I want to know about a change or addition like this. As I already said, even our Sugar partner was surprised, because they, too, didn't know anything about it.

We are aware that the data, Pendo gathers, is anonymized and used to help Sugar to better understand how we work with their product. But I want to have the freedom to choose whether I want that or not. When using my computer, iPhone or whatever, I can actively decide and set whether I want to share usage data with the manufacturers or not. And in this case I'm not making that decision just for myself but for all my 150+ users.
Not only did Sugar not communicate the news properly, they also didn't communicate how to deactivate that "feature", if you don't want data to be submitted. Gladly, we have found the way to accomplish that, anyways, but I would wished to have that information from Sugar directly and not have my developer dig for that all by himself (see the info-box below). 

You can deactivate it in the config.php under analytics and comment out your ID:

'analytics' => 
 array (
 'enabled' => false,
 'connector' => 'Pendo',
// 'id' => 'xxx',
 ),


after a Quick repair it is deactivated.

In my opinion the best and exemplary way would have been the ability to set this via the Admin page, so you don't even have to go to code level to change that. Maybe Sugar will come up with that - I really hope so, at least.

We are satisfied with the system in general, but, sorry, Sugar, this was just a very disappointing and poor performance, as it could be read as if you were trying to keep that under the radar intentionally.

I would be very curious about your opinions on the matter!

Best wishes,
Julia

Parents
  • 0

    Thanks for mentioning this "issue". I am curious: how does Sugar define "anonymized metadata" (as stated in the blog entry Say Hello to Sugar 9 | SugarCRM Blog )?

    What kind of data is transferred in detail?

    If it is not "anonymized" in terms of GDPR, we would need a DPA (data processing agreement) with Pendo. And we would need to keep all users of our Sugar instance informed about the fact that their data is collected and their "movements" are tracked.

    Besides the aspects of EU's GDPR, there is something called "information security" or "trade/business secret". As Julia already mentioned, I too do not want to share the information when, why and how often I, my coworkers or our customers use Sugar. It's none of your business, Sugar.

Reply
  • 0

    Thanks for mentioning this "issue". I am curious: how does Sugar define "anonymized metadata" (as stated in the blog entry Say Hello to Sugar 9 | SugarCRM Blog )?

    What kind of data is transferred in detail?

    If it is not "anonymized" in terms of GDPR, we would need a DPA (data processing agreement) with Pendo. And we would need to keep all users of our Sugar instance informed about the fact that their data is collected and their "movements" are tracked.

    Besides the aspects of EU's GDPR, there is something called "information security" or "trade/business secret". As Julia already mentioned, I too do not want to share the information when, why and how often I, my coworkers or our customers use Sugar. It's none of your business, Sugar.

Children
  • 0 in reply to Udo Siebrasse

    Regarding GDPR

    The login page has a new section/div "marketing-extras" on the right side. This loads an iframe from files.sugarcrm.com, which loads Google fonts and GoogleTagManager (https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id=GTM-K7Z5GPW).

  • 0 in reply to Udo Siebrasse

    Hi Julia Weinhold.  Thanks for your feedback. 

     

    As you mention in your post above, Sugar included Pendo, a usage analytics tool, in this year's Spring release.  Pendo gives new insight into product functions and usability.  Pendo data will help prioritize the bugs we fix, and the new features we build.  Being able to see how our customers interact with Sugar will help us respond more quickly to your needs.  Pendo will also give customers the ability to receive educational content, product tours, and guides directly.  Users will be alerted to new features and changes in functionality, and guided through new processes step-by-step. Ultimately, using Pendo will result in a better product, a more intuitive and streamlined user experience, and a direct channel for empirical feedback from Sugar customers.

     

    Gathering analytics using a tool like Pendo is standard operating procedure in modern application development.  In order to deliver innovative new features and respond to the needs of customers, it is important to understand how products are used.  Pendo provides visibility while protecting the privacy of users and complying with data privacy regulations like GDPR as well as Sugar’s privacy policy.  All user data is anonymous, we're not collecting any personally identifiable information, and we do not share collected data with other parties.

     

    While it is possible to disable Pendo through code customization, we sincerely ask that you don't.   Pendo is an extremely efficient channel to give anonymous product feedback to Sugar.  Disabling Pendo will disrupt this feedback loop and interfere with Sugar's ability to deliver the most impactful new features and solve your most important problems, including our ability respond quickly to resource and load issues that can affect system availability.