# Telemetry and privacy What the cua SDK, the cua CLI, cua daemon, cua-spacesd and the Cua Spaces app collect, what they never collect, and how to turn it off. > Agent discovery: use [the Cua documentation index](https://cua.ai/docs/llms.txt) to find related pages and their Markdown URLs. Cua sends anonymous usage data so we can see which features are used and where things break. It never contains your content. You can see every event before or after it is sent, and turn it off with one switch. ## Turn it off Any of these turns usage telemetry off for every Cua program on the machine (SDK in any language, `cua` CLI, `cua daemon`, the Spaces app, and Cua Driver): | Switch | Scope | |---|---| | `DO_NOT_TRACK=1` | This environment. Wins over everything. | | `CUA_TELEMETRY=0` | This environment. `CUA_TELEMETRY=1` turns it back on. | | `cua telemetry off` or `cua config set telemetry off` | This machine (`[telemetry] enabled = "off"` in `$CUA_HOME/config.toml`). | | Spaces app: "Share anonymous usage data" on the first run's Welcome page, or Settings, Privacy | Same setting as above. | | SDK: `cua.telemetry.disable()` (Python), `telemetrySetEnabled(false)` (TypeScript, Swift, Kotlin) | Same setting as above. | CI environments (`CI`, `GITHUB_ACTIONS`, `BUILDKITE`, ...) are off by default. `CUA_TELEMETRY=1` turns them on, and their events are marked `is_ci`. The older `CUA_TELEMETRY_ENABLED=false` and `CUA_DRIVER_RS_TELEMETRY_ENABLED=false` still work. ## See what is sent ```bash test="cli-shape" id="cua-telemetry-see-what-is-sent" cua telemetry status # on or off, why, and the properties every event carries cua telemetry show-last # the last events, exactly as sent cua telemetry schema # every event and property, with its allowed values cua telemetry reset-id # a new anonymous install id ``` Nothing is sent from a machine until the first-run notice has been shown there once (in the terminal, or in the Spaces app's onboarding or Settings). The process that shows it sends nothing. In the Spaces app the notice is on the first run's Welcome page, next to a "Share anonymous usage data" switch: nothing is queued or sent until you leave that page, and if you turn the switch off there, nothing is sent at all (the setting is saved for every Cua program on the machine). ## How it works - **Anonymous id.** 128 random bits in `$CUA_HOME/telemetry/install_id`, created on the first event actually sent, never while telemetry is off. It is not derived from your machine or account. `reset-id` deletes it. - **No person profiles, no location.** Every event sets `$process_person_profile: false` and `$geoip_disable: true`. Like any HTTPS request, the upload reaches PostHog (EU) from your IP address; it is never an event property and is not used for location. - **Closed vocabularies.** Every property is one of a fixed list of values, a bucket, a boolean or a version. An image reference that is not in the public image catalog is sent as `custom`; an app outside the public teleport catalog as `other`; an error as its category (`not_found`, `timeout`), never its message. An event with any other property or value is dropped before it is queued. - **Never in the way.** Events go out in batches from a background thread with a 3 second budget. Offline, up to 500 events wait on disk for 7 days at most. Exiting waits at most 0.4 seconds. ## What is collected A fixed set of events with closed-vocabulary properties. The full list, each property and why it is collected: [Telemetry events](). ## What we use it for These are the questions the events answer, and nothing else: - How many people install and launch Cua Spaces, and how many finish the first run? Where do they leave it (which page), and what do they pick on each page? - How many make a first Space, of which kind and where? How long until it is ready, and how often does a create fail (in which phase, or by stalling) or get abandoned? - Do people teleport, and does it work? Do they run an agent? - Do they use the Cua Volume, persistent agents, host Spaces, the Keyvault, sharing and multiplayer? Do they update? - Are they still using Cua a day, a week and a month later? The activation funnel joins events on the anonymous install id, in order: app launched (`cua_onboarding_step` `app_launched`), first run completed (`onboarding_completed`), signed in (`signed_in`), first Space created (`first_space_created`), first Space ready (`first_space_ready`), first teleport (`first_teleport`) and first agent run (`first_agent_run`). The `first_*` steps are sent once per install. An agent run is counted by the install that started it: once when it starts, and once when any Cua program of that install first sees its first turn end, fail or stop. Until then a marker with the same fixed words waits in `~/.cua/telemetry/agent_runs/` (dropped after 7 days). Cua programs inside an agent run (`CUA_AGENT_RUN_ID` set) record no agent runs, so a Space never counts as an install. Retention counts installs with a `cua_app_active` event on day 1, 7 and 30 after their first one. ## Never collected File paths, file names, usernames, hostnames, IP addresses, emails, window titles, URLs, clipboard, keystrokes or typed text, screenshots, screen or accessibility content, prompts, model output, sandbox or Space names, error messages, and anything stored in the Keyvault (only consent decisions are counted). Tests enforce this: every event builder is fed paths, emails, hostnames and window titles, and none may appear in a payload.