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‎website_and_docs/content/blog/2025/selenium-privacy-policy.md

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---
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title: "Selenium Privacy Policy"
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linkTitle: "Selenium Privacy Policy"
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date: 2025-02-19
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tags: [ "selenium", "manager", "privacy", "telemetry" ]
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categories: [ "Privacy" ]
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author: Titus Fortner [@titusfortner](https://titusfortner.com)
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description: >
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Selenium has introduced a Privacy Policy to clarify our data collection practices, why telemetry exists, and how we ensure compliance with GDPR and CCPA.
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---
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Selenium has always been committed to open-source transparency and user privacy, but we recognize that
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we could have done a better job communicating the details of Selenium Manager's telemetry collection.
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To address this, we have published a comprehensive [Privacy Policy](/privacy) that
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clearly explains:
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* What data is collected (and what isn’t)
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* How we ensure compliance with GDPR and CCPA
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* Why Selenium Manager includes opt-out telemetry
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* How users can easily disable telemetry
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The bottom line is that Selenium Manager collects only anonymous technical information to help us improve Selenium.
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Additionally, starting in Selenium 4.30, Selenium Manager displays a one-time console message the first time
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telemetry is sent. This obviously and proactively informs users about telemetry, their right to opt out,
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and provides a direct link to the Privacy Policy.
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**Quick Recap of what Selenium Manager collects:**
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✔ Selenium version (to ensure compatibility across versions)
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✔ Programming language (Java, Python, JavaScript, .NET)
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✔ Operating system and CPU architecture (to prioritize OS support)
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✔ Browser and version (to understand browser usage trends)
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✔ Approximate geolocation (city-level), temporarily inferred from the IP (IP is discarded after processing)
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❌ No usernames, emails, or personal identifiers
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❌ No browser history or test execution data
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❌ No full IP addresses (only used temporarily for location inference, then discarded)
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❌ No cookies or persistent tracking
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See everything for yourself: [Selenium Manager Public Analytics](https://plausible.io/manager.selenium.dev)
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## Opting Out of Telemetry
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Like many other open-source projects, we use opt-out telemetry to ensure we receive representative, anonymous data that
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helps improve Selenium. We understand that some people prefer opt-in telemetry,
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and we explain our reasoning in detail in the [Privacy Policy](https://www.selenium.dev/privacy/#opt-out)
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Regardless, it is quite easy to disable telemetry by either:
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1. Setting an environment variable
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```sh
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SE_AVOID_STATS=true
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```
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2. Using a configuration file
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```ini
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avoid-stats = true
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```
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Please see the [Selenium Manager documentation](https://www.selenium.dev/documentation/selenium_manager/) for further
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details on how to do this.
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## Insights
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**Interesting tidbits we’ve learned from having opt-out telemetry over the past year:**
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* Selenium gets over 1 million unique users a week
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* The number of unique users is growing at a rate of 10% per month
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* Over 80% of sessions are on Windows
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* Almost 90% of sessions use Chrome
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* Fewer than 1% of sessions are with Safari or Internet Explorer
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* A lot more sessions are with C# and Python than Java, and very few people are using Ruby and JavaScript
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<em>Note 1: The data only represents users who have updated to Selenium 4.19 or greater</em><br />
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<em>Note 2: A unique user represents a unique session from a given IP address for that day</em><br />

‎website_and_docs/content/privacy/_index.html

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---
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title: Privacy Policy
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linkTitle: privacy
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aliases:
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[
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"/pt-br/privacy/",
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"/zh-cn/privacy/",
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"/ja/privacy/",
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"/other/privacy/",
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]
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---
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{{< blocks/section color="selenium-green" height="min" >}}
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<div class="mx-auto text-center p-4">
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<h1 class="d-1">Selenium Privacy Policy</h1>
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</div>
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{{< /blocks/section >}}
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<div class="row p-5">
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<div class="alert alert-green bg-transparent ps-lg-5" role="alert">
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<h2 class="alert-heading pb-3">Selenium's Commitment to Privacy</h2>
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<div class="w-lg-75">
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<p>
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Selenium is committed to protecting user privacy and ensuring transparency in how we collect and use
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data.
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This policy explains what data we collect, why we collect it, and how users can control their privacy
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preferences.
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</p>
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<p>
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The Selenium project collects anonymous data from visitors to our website
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as well as usage data through <a href="https://www.selenium.dev/documentation/selenium_manager">Selenium
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Manager</a>.
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Selenium uses <a href="https://plausible.io/privacy-focused-web-analytics">Plausible Analytics</a>
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to manage this data due to its focus on privacy.
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</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div class="row td-box--100 p-5">
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<div class="alert alert-orange bg-transparent ps-lg-5" role="alert">
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<h2 class="alert-heading pb-3">Website Analytics (selenium.dev)</h2>
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<div class="w-lg-75">
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<p>
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Selenium uses <a href="https://plausible.io">Plausible's</a> hosted solution to track information
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about visitors to our website (<a href="https://www.selenium.dev">selenium.dev</a>).
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The following information is collected:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Number of visitors to the site</li>
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<li>Most viewed pages</li>
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<li>General geographic distribution (country-level)</li>
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<li>Referral sources (e.g., search engines, social media, direct visits)</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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Plausible does not use cookies, does not track users across sites, and does not collect personal
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information.
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</p>
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<p>
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All information we collect is publicly available on the
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<a href="https://plausible.io/selenium.dev">Selenium Website Plausible Dashboard</a>
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</p>
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<p>
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This data helps us understand how users engage with the Selenium website to improve our
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documentation and content.
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</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div class="row p-5">
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<div class="alert alert-cyan bg-transparent ps-lg-5" role="alert">
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<h2 class="alert-heading pb-3">Selenium Manager Telemetry</h2>
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<div class="w-lg-75">
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<p>
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Selenium Manager, a tool for managing browser drivers, collects anonymous usage data to
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help us understand which platforms and configurations need the most support.
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</p>
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<p>
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Data Collected:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Selenium version</li>
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<li>Programming language (Java, Python, JavaScript, .NET)</li>
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<li>Operating system and CPU architecture</li>
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<li>Browser and version (managed by Selenium Manager)</li>
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<li>Approximate geolocation (city-level), derived temporarily from the IP address (IP is discarded after
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processing)
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</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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What is NOT collected:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Personal information (e.g., usernames, emails)</li>
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<li>Browser history or test execution details</li>
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<li>Full IP addresses (only used temporarily for location inference, then discarded)</li>
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<li>Cookies or persistent tracking identifiers</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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All information we collect is publicly available on the
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<a href="https://plausible.io/manager.selenium.dev">Selenium Manager Plausible Dashboard</a>
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</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div class="row td-box--100 p-5">
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<div class="alert alert-orange bg-transparent ps-lg-5" role="alert">
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<h2 class="alert-heading pb-3">GDPR & CCPA Compliance</h2>
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<div class="w-lg-75">
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<p>
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Selenium Manager’s telemetry is designed to comply with GDPR and CCPA by collecting only anonymized,
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non-personal data and providing users full control over their participation.
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Below is a detailed breakdown of compliance with key GDPR provisions.
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</p>
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<h4>Lawfulness & Transparency (Articles 5, 6, 12)</h4>
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<ul>
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<li>Selenium Manager processes anonymized, non-personal data under legitimate interest
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(Article 6(1)(f)), allowing data collection for product improvement while respecting user privacy.
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</li>
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<li>Users are informed about telemetry collection through:
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<ul>
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<li>Change logs and documentation updates</li>
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<li>Blog posts</li>
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<li>A one-time console message when telemetry is first sent</li>
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</ul>
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</li>
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</ul>
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<h4>Data Minimization & Purpose Limitation (Articles 5, 25)</h4>
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<ul>
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<li>Only essential, anonymous usage data is collected to guide project improvements.</li>
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<li>IP addresses are not stored; they are used temporarily to derive city-level geolocation before being
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discarded.
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</li>
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<li>Data is not used for advertising, profiling, or tracking individual users.</li>
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</ul>
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<h4>User Rights (Articles 12-23)</h4>
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<ul>
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<li>Right to Object (Article 21): Users have the right to object to the processing of
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their data under legitimate interest. Selenium Manager respects this right by providing:
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<ul>
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<li>clear and accessible opt-out mechanisms, allowing users to disable telemetry at any time.
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</li>
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<li>information regarding the user's right to opt out via the measures detailed in the
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Lawfulness & Transparency section above.
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</li>
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</ul>
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</li>
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<li>Right to Access, Rectification, and Erasure (Articles 15-17): These rights apply when personal data
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is collected and stored. Since Selenium Manager only processes anonymous, non-personal data and does
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not retain user information, these rights are not applicable.
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</li>
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</ul>
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<h4>Storage & Security (Articles 5, 32)</h4>
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<ul>
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<li>Data is aggregated and anonymized, ensuring no link to individual users.</li>
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<li>No long-term storage of raw data; all processing is done within GDPR-compliant
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<a href="https://plausible.io/privacy-focused-web-analytics#hosted-in-the-eu-powered-by-european-owned-cloud-infrastructure">EU infrastructure</a>
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</li>
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Everything Selenium Manager collects is publicly accessible in the
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<a href="https://plausible.io/manager.selenium.dev">Selenium Manager Plausible Dashboard</a> for full
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transparency.
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</li>
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</ul>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div class="row td-box--100 p-5">
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<div class="alert alert-blue bg-transparent ps-lg-5" role="alert">
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<h2 class="alert-heading pb-3">Selenium Manager Telemetry is Opt-Out</h2>
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<div class="w-lg-75">
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<p>
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While some open-source projects use opt-in telemetry, Selenium requires a representative dataset to
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accurately assess project usage and prioritize improvements. With multiple language implementations and
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distribution methods, opt-in telemetry would not provide meaningful insights, particularly for
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cross-language comparisons.
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</p>
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<p>
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Many well-known open-source projects, such as <a
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href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/tools/telemetry">.NET CLI</a>, <a
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href="https://docs.brew.sh/Analytics">Homebrew</a>, <a
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href="https://nextjs.org/telemetry">Next.js</a>, and <a
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href="https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/admin_area/usage_statistics.html">GitLab</a>, use opt-out
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telemetry for similar reasons. </p>
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<p>Additionally, Selenium faces unique challenges in even providing an
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opt-in mechanism — there is no universal way to prompt users across all language bindings and package
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distribution methods. An unrepresentative dataset would prevent us from accurately assessing project
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usage and making informed improvements. For Selenium, the real choice is not
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between opt-in and opt-out, but between opt-out and no telemetry at all.
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</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div class="row p-5">
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<div class="alert alert-green bg-transparent ps-lg-5" role="alert">
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<h2 id="opt-out" class="alert-heading pb-3">How to Opt Out of Selenium Manager Telemetry</h2>
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<div class="w-lg-75">
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<p>
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If you prefer not to share anonymous usage data, you can disable telemetry, the detailed instructions
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can be found in the <a href="../documentation/selenium_manager">Selenium Manager Documentation</a>,
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but broadly consists of
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methods:
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</p>
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<h4>Option 1: Use an Environment Variable</h4>
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<pre><code>SE_AVOID_STATS=true</code></pre>
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<h4>Option 2: Use a Configuration File</h4>
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<pre><code>avoid-stats = true</code></pre>
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<p>
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Once disabled, Selenium Manager will not send any telemetry data.
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</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div class="row p-5">
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<div class="alert alert-cyan bg-transparent ps-lg-5" role="alert">
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<h2 id="feedback" class="alert-heading pb-3">Feedback</h2>
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<div class="w-lg-75">
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<p>
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If you have suggestions for how we can improve out implementations, please reach out to the Selenium
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team:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="/support">Selenium Support</a></li>
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<li><a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a></li>
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</ul>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>

‎website_and_docs/hugo.toml

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[params]
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copyright = "Software Freedom Conservancy"
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# privacy_policy = "https://policies.google.com/privacy"
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privacy_policy = "/privacy"
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# First one is picked as the Twitter card image if not set on page.
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images = ["images/selenium_4_logo.png"]
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url = "/sponsor"
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weight = 70
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[[menus.main]]
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name = "Privacy Policy"
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parent = "About"
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url = "/privacy"
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weight = 80
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[[menus.main]]
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identifier = "Downloads"
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name = "Downloads"

‎website_and_docs/layouts/partials/footer.html

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</div>
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<div class="col-12 col-sm-4 text-center py-2 order-sm-2">
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{{ with .Site.Params.copyright }}<small class="text-white">&copy; {{ now.Year}} {{ .}} {{ T "footer_all_rights_reserved" }}</small>{{ end }}
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{{ with .Site.Params.privacy_policy }}<small class="ml-1"><a href="{{ . }}" target="_blank" rel="noopener">{{ T "footer_privacy_policy" }}</a></small>{{ end }}
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{{ with .Site.Params.privacy_policy }}<p class="mt-2"><a href="{{ . }}">{{ T "footer_privacy_policy" }}</a></p>{{ end }}
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{{ if not .Site.Params.ui.footer_about_disable }}
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{{ with .Site.GetPage "about" }}<p class="mt-2"><a href="{{ .RelPermalink }}">{{ .Title }}</a></p>{{ end }}
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{{ end }}

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