Ooma Forums

I'd be interested in hearing from someone from ooma concerning the following questions:

1) Does the ooma hub "phone home"? I.e., does the hub report back to ooma.

2) If the hub does phone home, what data is sent? Specifically, does the hub collect any data as to web traffic unrelated to phone service? E.g., does it record that I visited http://www.yahoo.com?

3) Does ooma have a written policy addressing the above issues? What is the procedure for notifying users of changes in the policy?

ooma does indeed have a privacy policy. You can access it here: http://www.ooma.com/privacy/

Note the following about changes:

Changes to Policy
We reserve the right, at our discretion, to change, modify, add, or remove portions from this Policy at any time by posting such changes on our web site. You should review this Policy regularly for changes, and can easily identify if changes have been made by checking the Effective Date below. However, if at any time in the future we plan to use Personal Information in a way that materially differs from this Policy, we will post such changes on our web site and provide you with the opportunity to opt-out of such differing terms of usage. Your continued use of our Products and Services for a reasonable period of time following the posting of any changes to this Policy means you accept such changes.

Seems to me like our private data is pretty safe. Remember that any communications process includes inherent risks. It is wise to understand and manage those risks to your individual comfort level. I used to think I was paranoid. Then someone told me I wasn't paranoid, that they (fill in the blank here) REALLY WERE WATCHING ME.

My solution to this imense risk is described on the following website: http://zapatopi.net/afdb/. While you are there, check out the rest of the site. One of my favorites is about the supposed existence of Belguim.

drdec wrote:I'd be interested in hearing from someone from ooma concerning the following questions:

1) Does the ooma hub "phone home"? I.e., does the hub report back to ooma.

The Hub sends system information to ooma over an encrypted channel. Specific information is only looked at by the engineering teams for debugging purposes. For example, if a user is complaining about a voice quality problem, we can turn on some debugs and look at statistics like packet loss and jitter.

drdec wrote: 2) If the hub does phone home, what data is sent? Specifically, does the hub collect any data as to web traffic unrelated to phone service? E.g., does it record that I visited http://www.yahoo.com?

No information about the traffic going through the Hub is sent to ooma.

drdec wrote: 3) Does ooma have a written policy addressing the above issues? What is the procedure for notifying users of changes in the policy?

Check out https://www.ooma.com/privacy

Thanks Mojo for the reply. I was primarily interested in learning if web traffic was recorded and/or reported. I would expect some information concerning the phone service to be collected. This has answered my questions.

As to the other poster, I am not being paranoid, I am trying to be informed.

Sorry about seeming to criticize you question. I was just trying to bring a smile to your face while supplying the privacy link. In case you didn't click the link to Zapato, it is a really funny site built by a person with a wonderful imagination and way too much time on his hands. Definitely worth a laugh.

Joke..?? It was a joke? Hang on a second, let me get this aluminum thing off my head......

Wayne

Haha, there was a whole bit on resisting mind control with tin-foil hats in the latest Futurama movie

Hi,

I've noticed my Hub literally PHONING home or at least phoning somewhere.

The 1 button lights up and if I pick up the phone, I hear a modem type sound. Then it hangs up.

It is not originating from any of my phones or attached PCs. There is no fax machine on the line. It seems to happen late evening between 8 and 10 PM.

If its not OOMA (the company) dong this, I wonder if the Hub has been hacked from the outside and is sending collected information somewhere. But If so, why not just send the info over the internet without using VoIP. Using VoIP just alerts the owner (big red light) something is going on.

I guess its time to move the OOMA behind the router while getting to the bottom of this. At least then the Hub can't be collecting anything from the regular internet traffic.

Do you have DirectTV?
Do you have a TiVo?
Do you have a ReplayTV?
Do you have a Panasonic Showstopper?

All of the above place automatic phone calls.

Get the phone number that was called from your my.ooma account and then Google the phone number

Thanks Murphy. It was a number for Dish Network. Still weird they would do that during typical waking hours. Would have expected them to phone home at 2 AM or such.