I understand Plugin Developers want to offload some of the administration of a plugin and some of the administration of the users of the plugin. I encountered Freemius previously and it rattles me a little bit that a lot of plugin developers are jumping onboard with them perhaps not fully knowing what data is collected, how it is stored, how it is safeguarded and potential for future marketing or hacking.

The Freemius opt-in only appears AFTER the plugin is activated. This is a little unnerving since users don’t expect other third parties to pop up for tracking their license and storing their sensitive data.

In regards to “opted-in” users, even if you opt out and then uninstall the Gutenberg plugin, the users are presented with a list of answers and are asked why they are uninstalling the plugin. So, because of this questionnaire when deleting the plugin, I believe Freemius installs hooks into the plugin even if you opt-out during activation.

Freemius scares me because:

1.) their opt-in appears AFTER plugin activation
2.) they collect Admin usernames and Admin email addresses
3.) they present their nag screen when deleting the plugin (even after opting out)
4.) and “Goodness knows!” what else is being tracked

It’s just too big brother for me.

I hope Gutenslider succeeds and has a great partnership with Kioken. I just want you to know what some of your Users perspectives may be…