In version 2.3 of the plugin we introduced something new: usage tracking. Now, usage tracking is disabled by default but can be enabled by going to theMC4WP > Other settings page.

usage-tracking

All tracking data is 100% anonymous, we do not track anything that could be traced back to your site or server.

Here’s what we track exactly:

  • WordPress version
  • Mailchimp for WordPress plugin version
  • PHP version
  • PHP-CURL version
  • Your server software
  • Whether your site uses SSL
  • The language of your WordPress installation
  • Checkbox settings, like wether you use double opt-in or which integrations you have enabled
  • Form settings, like wether you use double opt-in or if you added a name-field to your sign-up form
  • The names of the activated plugins
  • The number of Mailchimp lists your account has

We’re not tracking anything else – just the minimum required set of data that we think is useful for basing decisions on to improve the plugin.

Your API key, license key or any other personal information will never be tracked.

Will enabling usage tracking slow down my site?

We built our usage tracking functionality on top of the WP-CRON functionality, which means it is handled in a separate process and will not slow down your site for your visitors in any way.

On top of that, requests to our tracking server are non-blocking. This means the request is fired off after which the script is resumed immediately, without waiting for the actual response.

This means the impact of enabling usage tracking on your site’s performance is literally zero.

What is the data used for?

The data is used for making product decisions based on some actual data, thus removing the need for guesswork or manual surveys.

One example is that we, as developers, would love to take advantage of features introduced in PHP 5.3. However, data says that over 5% of our users are still running an older version of PHP. That’s one in 20 users we would abandon by bumping our software requirements, not something we take lightly.

Without data, decisions like this would be a lot harder to make. If you choose to enable usage tracking to help us out, THANK YOU.