Beacon

Operately includes a beacon system that helps us understand how the software is being used and improve the product. This page explains how the beacon works and how you can disable it if needed.

What is the beacon?#

The beacon is a lightweight telemetry system that periodically sends anonymous usage statistics to Operately’s servers.

What data is collected?#

The beacon collects only two pieces of information:

Version: The application version number (e.g., v1.1.0)
Installation ID: A randomly generated, non-identifying ID used only to deduplicate and count unique instances

No other data is collected. No personal, content, or authentication data is transmitted.

What data is NOT collected?#

The beacon does not collect:

Personal information (names, emails, addresses)
Content data (goal titles, project descriptions, messages)
Authentication credentials
IP addresses or location data
Individual user behavior or activity

How does the beacon work?#

The beacon operates by:

Collecting metrics: Gathering anonymous usage statistics locally
Aggregating data: Combining data into anonymous summaries
Periodic transmission: Sending data once per day to Operately servers
Automatic retry: Retrying failed transmissions with exponential backoff

The beacon uses HTTPS encryption for all data transmission and respects your network configuration and firewall rules.

How to disable the beacon#

To disable the beacon, set the following environment variable in your deployment:

OPERATELY_BEACON_ENABLED=false

After setting this environment variable, you must restart your Docker containers for the change to take effect.

Privacy considerations#

We take privacy seriously and are committed to:

Transparency: Being clear about what data is collected
Minimalism: Collecting only what’s necessary for product improvement
Security: Using encryption and secure transmission methods
Control: Providing easy ways to disable data collection