# Telemetry \[How Ponder collects and uses telemetry]

Ponder collects **completely anonymous** telemetry data about general usage. The developers use this data to prioritize new feature development, identify bugs, and improve performance & stability.

## Opt out

To opt out of telemetry, set the `PONDER_TELEMETRY_DISABLED` environment variable.

```js filename=".env.local"
PONDER_TELEMETRY_DISABLED = true
```

## Implementation

Ponder's telemetry implementation is 100% open-source. The [telemetry service](https://github.com/ponder-sh/ponder/blob/main/packages/core/src/common/telemetry.ts#L47) (part of `ponder`) runs on the user's device and submits event data via HTTP POST requests to the [telemetry collection endpoint](https://github.com/ponder-sh/ponder/blob/main/docs/pages/api/telemetry/index.ts) hosted at `https://ponder.sh/api/telemetry`.

The implementation generates a stable anonymous unique identifier for the user's device and stores it at the [system default user config directory](https://github.com/sindresorhus/env-paths#pathsconfig). This config also stores the user's opt-out preference and a stable salt used to hash potentially sensitive data such as file paths and the git remote URL.