Telemetry
The Pact team strive to develop great open source tools for the community. We rely on the community's input to help us iterate on and improve Pact. Telemetry is additional information that helps us to better understand the community's needs, diagnose issues, and prioritise feature work.
Pact's distribution channels — Docker images on Docker Hub, CLI binaries on GitHub Releases, and some package managers — are routed through Scarf, which collects anonymized usage analytics about how Pact tools are downloaded. README impressions on github.com and Docker Hub are also tracked via 1x1 pixel images served from static.scarf.sh.
We do not collect personal information, such as usernames or email addresses. Pact tools do not extract sensitive project-level information at runtime.
When consuming Pact tools you can control whether telemetry is enabled, and the setting can be changed at any point in time. If telemetry remains enabled, telemetry data is sent in the background without requiring any additional interaction.
This data is collected via Scarf and is accessible to SmartBear.
Opt Out​
Scarf collects analytics at the moment you install or download a Pact distribution. The primary opt-out is to use the canonical (Docker Hub / GitHub Releases / etc.) URLs directly instead of the Pact Foundation's Scarf gateway URLs documented in each project's README.
Docker images​
To opt out of pull-event analytics for the Pact Broker (and any other Pact Docker image), pull from Docker Hub directly:
docker pull pactfoundation/pact-broker
Avoid the docker.pactflow.io/pactfoundation/... gateway URLs shown in each project's README install / examples blocks.
CLI binaries​
To opt out of download-event analytics for Pact CLI binaries (e.g. pact-broker-cli, pact-cli), download from the canonical GitHub Releases page directly. Avoid the Scarf gateway URLs documented in each tool's README (e.g. curl <gateway>/...installer.sh | sh).
README impression pixel​
A 1x1 image served from static.scarf.sh records README impressions on github.com and Docker Hub. To opt out:
- Disable image loading in your browser when viewing the README; or
- Block
static.scarf.shat the network level (firewall, DNS sinkhole, browser content-blocker).
PACT_DO_NOT_TRACK for install scripts​
Some Pact install scripts (e.g. the pact-cli installer) respect the PACT_DO_NOT_TRACK environment variable as a fail-fast opt-out for install-time analytics events. Where this is supported, setting PACT_DO_NOT_TRACK=true prevents the script from emitting any telemetry.
In macOS and Linux operating systems:
export PACT_DO_NOT_TRACK=true
On Windows (PowerShell):
$env:PACT_DO_NOT_TRACK = 'true'
Maven pom.xml > surefire:
<property>
<name>pact_do_not_track</name>
<value>true</value>
</property>
Types of Information Collected​
Telemetry collected through Scarf falls into three categories, per Scarf's Docker / File Packages documentation:
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| System and OS statistics | Parsed from the client User-Agent header: Docker client version, language runtime, kernel version, OS (linux / darwin / windows), architecture (amd64 / arm64 / arm). |
| Company information | Organisation / company name derived from the source IP via an ASN lookup at request time. Attributes usage at company level, not user level. |
| Downloads by versions / tags | The tag in a Docker pull, or the version in a release download. Tells maintainers which versions are in active use. |
| Coarse-grained location | Country, derived from the source IP at request time. |
| Referring URL | For README pixel impressions, the page that referred the request, when present. |
| Page parameter | For README pixel impressions, the page name passed in the pixel URL (always README.md for Pact's pixels). |
| Pixel ID | The x-pxid query parameter identifying which pixel fired the event. |
What is NOT collected​
Per Scarf's documentation:
- IP addresses are not stored. They are used at request time for the geo / organisation lookup and then discarded.
- No cookies are set.
- No persistent identifiers are used. Users are not tracked across sessions or across sites.
- No personally identifiable information is retained.
Further Questions?​
For more information or help with Telemetry check out 'Where to go for help'
