How can I prevent Glimpse 1.8.2 from posting to api.mixpanel.com?

Question

At certain times in its operation, Glimpse 1.8.2 POSTs to api.mixpanel.com.

1. What is it sending?
2. How can I stop this from happening?
3. How can I opt out?

Answer 1

From "avanderhoorn" at https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/getglimpse-dev/mixpanel/getglimpse-dev/7WgpX_Menz4/tnqJBwt20ZgJ:

I'm sorry this caught you off guard, that is not our intension.

This is to be expected and went out with the last release - http://blog.getglimpse.com/2014/02/04/glimpse-1-8-2-released/ (see Glimpse Insights support). Its a part of an effort to try and make better decisions for choices we make -http://blog.getglimpse.com/2014/01/22/getting-greater-insights-into-glimpse/.

It is a part of core but when switched off, its a complete removal (from the blog post): If you do opt-out, there will be no traces of Insights in your code base. Insights was designed not simply to be a switch on or off, but to be a complete removal. Meaning no traces of the Insights code will remain if you choose to opt out.

The information being gathered can be viewed if you have a look at local storage. If you want a better view than that, you can get the client repo - https://github.com/glimpse/glimpse.client/ - and running the test client - https://github.com/Glimpse/Glimpse.Client/blob/master/test/Client.html. Once you have that open you will see a tab called "Insights" on the right which shows the data as its being collected. Also, if you want to see the source code involved, its isolated to this one file - here is the specific code that captures the events https://github.com/Glimpse/Glimpse.Client/blob/master/source/glimpse.insight.js#L345-L520.

You are right about the fact that it should be on the site. We have a new site coming out soon and its noted there. Its an oversight and the fact that we have been focusing on the new stuff. In response to an earlier question - https://twitter.com/greensky/status/431491507590160384 - we have also updated the Glimpse.axd to have the code required to opt-out. This will go out with the next release.

As an action item on this, I'll update the config help page of the current website to make sure the same information thats in the post will be noted there. Also I would like your feedback if there is anything else you think we can do to help. For the sake of completeness, the following is the opt-out code which goes in your web.config:

<glimpse>
  <clientScripts>
    <ignoredTypes>
        <add type="Glimpse.Core.ClientScript.Insight, Glimpse.Core"/> 
    </ignoredTypes>
  </clientScripts>
</glimpse>

Lastly, as we get time, we will be making the data collected publicly available. If this is something you are interested in helping out with, we could sure use the help. We believe that information like this will not only help us make better decisions, but help the community inform us what they want beyond what we here from the occasional person on twitter or at conferences.

Let us know what you think.