Selenium Privacy Policy
Selenium's Commitment to Privacy
Selenium is committed to protecting user privacy and ensuring transparency in how we collect and use data. This policy explains what data we collect, why we collect it, and how users can control their privacy preferences.
The Selenium project collects anonymous data from visitors to our website as well as usage data through Selenium Manager. Selenium uses Plausible Analytics to manage this data due to its focus on privacy.
Website Analytics (selenium.dev)
Selenium uses Plausible's hosted solution to track information about visitors to our website (selenium.dev). The following information is collected:
- Number of visitors to the site
- Most viewed pages
- General geographic distribution (country-level)
- Referral sources (e.g., search engines, social media, direct visits)
Plausible does not use cookies, does not track users across sites, and does not collect personal information.
All information we collect is publicly available on the Selenium Website Plausible Dashboard
This data helps us understand how users engage with the Selenium website to improve our documentation and content.
Selenium Manager Telemetry
Selenium Manager, a tool for managing browser drivers, collects anonymous usage data to help us understand which platforms and configurations need the most support.
Data Collected:
- Selenium version
- Programming language (Java, Python, JavaScript, .NET)
- Operating system and CPU architecture
- Browser and version (managed by Selenium Manager)
- Approximate geolocation (city-level), derived temporarily from the IP address (IP is discarded after processing)
What is NOT collected:
- Personal information (e.g., usernames, emails)
- Browser history or test execution details
- Full IP addresses (only used temporarily for location inference, then discarded)
- Cookies or persistent tracking identifiers
All information we collect is publicly available on the Selenium Manager Plausible Dashboard
GDPR & CCPA Compliance
Selenium Manager’s telemetry is designed to comply with GDPR and CCPA by collecting only anonymized, non-personal data and providing users full control over their participation. Below is a detailed breakdown of compliance with key GDPR provisions.
Lawfulness & Transparency (Articles 5, 6, 12)
- Selenium Manager processes anonymized, non-personal data under legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f)), allowing data collection for product improvement while respecting user privacy.
- Users are informed about telemetry collection through:
- Change logs and documentation updates
- Blog posts
- A one-time console message when telemetry is first sent
Data Minimization & Purpose Limitation (Articles 5, 25)
- Only essential, anonymous usage data is collected to guide project improvements.
- IP addresses are not stored; they are used temporarily to derive city-level geolocation before being discarded.
- Data is not used for advertising, profiling, or tracking individual users.
User Rights (Articles 12-23)
- Right to Object (Article 21): Users have the right to object to the processing of
their data under legitimate interest. Selenium Manager respects this right by providing:
- clear and accessible opt-out mechanisms, allowing users to disable telemetry at any time.
- information regarding the user's right to opt out via the measures detailed in the Lawfulness & Transparency section above.
- Right to Access, Rectification, and Erasure (Articles 15-17): These rights apply when personal data is collected and stored. Since Selenium Manager only processes anonymous, non-personal data and does not retain user information, these rights are not applicable.
Storage & Security (Articles 5, 32)
- Data is aggregated and anonymized, ensuring no link to individual users.
- No long-term storage of raw data; all processing is done within GDPR-compliant EU infrastructure Everything Selenium Manager collects is publicly accessible in the Selenium Manager Plausible Dashboard for full transparency.
Selenium Manager Telemetry is Opt-Out
While some open-source projects use opt-in telemetry, Selenium requires a representative dataset to accurately assess project usage and prioritize improvements. With multiple language implementations and distribution methods, opt-in telemetry would not provide meaningful insights, particularly for cross-language comparisons.
Many well-known open-source projects, such as .NET CLI, Homebrew, Next.js, and GitLab, use opt-out telemetry for similar reasons.
Additionally, Selenium faces unique challenges in even providing an opt-in mechanism — there is no universal way to prompt users across all language bindings and package distribution methods. An unrepresentative dataset would prevent us from accurately assessing project usage and making informed improvements. For Selenium, the real choice is not between opt-in and opt-out, but between opt-out and no telemetry at all.
How to Opt Out of Selenium Manager Telemetry
If you prefer not to share anonymous usage data, you can disable telemetry, the detailed instructions can be found in the Selenium Manager Documentation, but broadly consists of methods:
Option 1: Use an Environment Variable
SE_AVOID_STATS=trueOption 2: Use a Configuration File
avoid-stats = trueOnce disabled, Selenium Manager will not send any telemetry data.
Feedback
If you have suggestions for how we can improve out implementations, please reach out to the Selenium team:
