Advice on free app and user security

[kee nethery]

Given all you want is use data, here’s my recommendation.

Skip the email / reg code thing. Don’t do it. Skip the back end database, you don’t need it.

Twice a year have your app put up a dialog that states something like:

I’m glad you are using MyApp. It is free with one condition, every 6 months I’d like to receive your usage data so that I can focus on improving and enhancing the parts of MyApp that people actually use. The usage data, displayed below, contains nothing about you, it’s just a tally of what got used. This data gets sent to http://usage.myapp.com/usage.txt in clear text so that you can see, all I’m sending is what is displayed below. Again, thank you for using MyApp.

Display the data that has been gathered to date:
Version: 1.2.1
Usage Reports Sent: 1
Menu File/Open: 52
Menu File/Quit: 69
Trajectories calculated: 23

Summary sent to usage server: V=1.2.1&URS=1&FO=52&FQ=69&T=23

http://usage.myapp.com/usage.txt?V=1.2.1&URS=1&FO=52&FQ=69&T=23

If you just send this stuff to your server as a GET URL you’ll capture all this data in your server logs and you can process it whenever you feel like it. I would suggest that your usage.txt file contain a message of interest to them, and that you display it in the app after they press the Send button. For example “Latest version 1.4 calculates trajectories two times faster than in previous versions. Download at <url here>”

Then zero the activity counters and increment the Usage Reports Sent. 

You might allow them to select a “Not Now” button that would cause the “Send Usage Data” display to pop up the next day and keep doing so until they send it. 

You could always build something on your server later that looks for people with high "usage reports sent" numbers and ask them to contact you via email so that you can interview them to have them give you advice, or really old versions and really ask them to upgrade.

My two cents.

Kee Nethery




> On Jan 19, 2015, at 10:55 AM, William Prothero <prothero at earthednet.org> wrote:
> 
> So, I’d like to get some feedback on what you consider the “best practice” for this situation.