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Data and Privacy#

What Performance AV transmits, what it does not transmit, and how the behaviour is controlled. This page is linked from the consent dialog, the Settings → Privacy tab and the problem-report dialog.

Summary#

Data that leaves automatically carries no names from the model. A problem report is sent only by the user, having been listed in full beforehand. There are two channels, and nothing passes between them.

Channel 1 — capture reports#

Automatic, and disabled by default.

Each capture writes a technical report describing how the run performed: timings, counts and measures of how complete the result was, together with the settings in force. It is used to improve the capture.

The channel is disabled until it is enabled. The consent question is asked once, in a dialog of its own after the first successful capture, and the application behaves identically either way. The setting can be changed at any time in Settings → Privacy.

Report contents#

  • The install identifier — a pseudonymous id created at activation.
  • Environment — application version, Revit version and build, operating system version.
  • Operational statistics — timings, counts and geometric quality measures.
  • Measurements taken inside the model — the venue origin's position and the extents of its boundary, in the model's internal coordinates.
  • Failure detail — error type and technical detail, with file paths removed.

What a report does not contain#

  • The model's file name or path.
  • Venue, view, layer, level, material, family or type names.
  • Model geometry, or parameter values on elements.
  • Real-world survey coordinates, project location or any geographic position.
  • The Windows user name or computer name.
  • The contents of loudspeaker data files.
  • The Revit model, which is never read, copied or transmitted.

Names are replaced with codes#

A capture involves names written by the user — venues, element types, families, views, levels, phases, worksets and export layers. None of them are transmitted. Each is replaced with a short code that distinguishes one element from another without recording what it is called.

The table that resolves a code to a name is written on the user's machine and is never transmitted automatically. Each model uses its own codes, so the same wall type in two models produces two unrelated codes. Performance BIM therefore cannot resolve the codes in a capture report to names, and neither can anyone who obtains a report.

Inspecting and controlling reports#

Reports are queued on the machine and transmitted at the start of the next Revit session, never during a capture. Settings → Privacy → View latest report opens the newest queued report itself, rather than a summary of it.

Disabling reporting stops future reports and deletes anything already queued.

Transmission requires an install identifier, which is the reference by which data can later be located for deletion. The identifier is issued on licence activation.

Channel 2 — problem reports#

Sent only by the user.

Report a problem collects the logs into a single file. A problem report is complete and unredacted, because a redacted report generally cannot answer the question it was raised for. It contains:

  • The application log, including the Windows user name, file paths, model names, venue names and layer names for the application's activity on that machine.
  • The five most recent capture runs.
  • The tables that resolve codes to names.

It does not contain the Revit model.

The application log covers recent activity rather than a complete history: it is capped in size, and older parts are deleted after 45 days. A problem report therefore covers approximately the last few weeks of activity.

Because a problem report is complete, it is never automatic. Each time one is sent, the application lists every file and its size, the folder can be opened and the files read, and Send constitutes consent for that one incident.

A problem report makes past codes readable

A problem report includes the code tables, which allows the codes in capture reports already received from that model, and in later ones, to be resolved to names.

The report returns a reference such as PAV-33UU-KJ9G, to be quoted in correspondence. The file remains on the user's machine whether or not it is sent, and is deleted only by the user.

A problem report also requires an install identifier, and cannot be sent before a licence has been activated.

What is written to your machine#

Contents Contains names from the model? Leaves the machine?
Application log A record of application activity Yes — real paths, model, venue and layer names Only in a problem report
Capture run logs One record per capture No — names appear as codes Only in a problem report
Key file The table resolving a code to a name Yes Only in a problem report
Outbox Capture reports queued for transmission No Yes, when reporting is enabled

All four are held under %APPDATA%\Performance BIM\Performance AV\. See Default file locations.

Storage and retention#

Reports are stored on servers in Frankfurt, Germany, for all users, and are deleted automatically six months after receipt.

Processors: Amazon Web Services, Inc. hosts the reports. Freemius handles licensing, and is separate from the above.

Licensing#

Activating and validating a licence transmits the Windows user name and computer name, the operating system version, the system language and country, the application version and the licence key, to Freemius. This is required for the application to function and cannot be disabled while it is licensed.

It is unrelated to diagnostic reporting, which is optional and disabled by default.

Rights#

Users in the EEA or UK have rights under the GDPR of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability and objection, and the right to withdraw consent.

To request deletion of diagnostic data, quote the install identifier shown at the bottom of Settings → Privacy and email info@performancebim.com. All data held for that installation is stored under one key and is deleted in one action.

Withdrawing consent in Settings stops future reports immediately and deletes anything still queued on the machine. It does not by itself delete data already transmitted, which is deleted on request.

The full legal text is in the licence agreement shown during installation, section 6.