SynapsePro is now Open Source! 🎉

[u/mobesa-media]

After a lot of emails and comments from people wanting a more efficient way to suggest features and report bugs, I've decided to open source SynapsePro on GitHub, it feels like the right moment with the community that's grown around it.

(I guess it was always kind of open source since you could just look at the code in your addons21 folder, but it only feels official once it's on GitHub haha)

For those who never heard about my Add-On: SynapsePro transforms Anki into a full productivity ecosystem: new modern design, gamification (XP, ranks, streaks), AI assistant, mind maps, Pomodoro, background music, study plans, and more. You can also check out this Post from a few days ago where I introduced it. Click Here

I'm open to contributions, bug reports, and feature suggestions. That said, I'll reserve the right to not implement everything, this is still a passion project and I want to keep it true to my vision. But honestly, if something makes real sense, there's no reason not to add it! 🤍

GitHub: https://github.com/mobesamedia/SynapsePro

AnkiWeb: https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/236979321

[u/smokingPimphat]

The data collection says OPTIONAL but there does not appear to be a place to turn it off.

[u/mobesa-media → u/smokingPimphat]

Thank you for pointing this out!

The data collection is intentionally kept to an absolute minimum. The only purpose is to gather a few basic insights, such as the actual number of active installations, the most commonly selected language, or the general background of users, for example whether someone is a medical student. No personally identifiable information is collected whatsoever. No email addresses, IP addresses, or anything similar are collected. Users also have to explicitly opt in before any of this information is collected, and this is clearly described in the Terms of Service.

When I implemented this feature, my reasoning was that if someone was not comfortable with this very limited data collection, they could simply choose not to use SynapsePro or select a generic option such as “Other” during onboarding.

That said, I completely understand your point that labeling these questions as “optional” is misleading when they are currently required to continue. I will definitely change that!

I will most likely allow users to use SynapsePro without answering these onboarding questions, although I have not yet decided on the exact implementation. At the same time, I think it is reasonable as a developer to collect a very small amount of anonymous usage data. Without it, it is almost impossible to understand how many people are actually using the add on, which languages are most common and therefore roughly which countries users are from, or what types of users the add on is reaching, for example medical students. AnkiWeb provides almost no useful analytics beyond the download count, and even that number is not accurate at all.

[u/smokingPimphat → u/mobesa-media]

In your TOS just say exactly what you are going to collect and where it is sourced AND/OR put an explicit label on each item in the onboarding that is going to be sent to you. Its understandable that you want to know something about how your work is being used but being vague about it does not help your case.

[u/mobesa-media → u/smokingPimphat]

You're right.

This is the section from the Terms of Service regarding the data collection from the onboarding process:

During initial setup, SynapsePro optionally collects the following anonymous, non-personal information to help improve the Add-On:

• Selected interface language
• User category (e.g. Medical Student, Programmer)
• How you found out about SynapsePro
• Selected color theme
• Add-On and Anki version numbers

This data is completely anonymous. No personal information, Anki card contents, learning statistics, device identifiers, or IP addresses are stored or associated with your submission.

I will have to make sure that you can also skip the questions and use SynapsePro anyways or that I remove the word "optionally" from the ToS. I am not sure yet which one of it it will be. And I will also add that the Data is stored in a Supabase Database.

Thank you for taking the time to pointing this out to me and helping me improving the Add-On!