How do you handle Meta Data Contribution?

[Marco Nowak]

I have just read this article and I found out that we cannot deactivate meta data contribution in our Premium plan.

https://www.atlassian.com/trust/ai/data-contribution

How are you other Premium users dealing with the fact that Atlassian uses your metadata and you have no way to opt out?

[Marc -Devoteam-]

Hi @Marco Nowak 

As mentioned by @Gor Greyan dat collected is de-identified.

And on the other hand I'm kind of glad that they are open on what is collected.

I'm more worried what other applications do on this, Like Google Microsoft etc.

I know for example if you use Outlook there is no possibility also top opt out of meta -data collection, but I never have seen MS provide communication on this where they started this.

So in my opinion, I would be glad to know what is collected and how, and ask yourself the question do we know what meta-data is collected from other apps we use?

[Marc -Devoteam-]

Hi @Marco Nowak 

What based on the outlined meta-data collected do you see as sensitive company and strategic information?

https://support.atlassian.com/security-and-access-policies/docs/what-types-of-data-does-my-organization-contribute/ 

[Marco Nowak]

Well....these in-app data could contain a lot:

-search queries and results

-prompts and responses in Rovo Chat

or another example:

-common configuration values, such as, a custom Jira work item type like “iOS bug” or “Laptop repair ticket”

-> what if the company uses a work item type like "Company XY acquisition" or s.th. that way?

[Marco Nowak]

My opinion is that just because there are other providers that follow poor and non-transparent practices in this area, that does not justify everyone else doing the same.

Furthermore, even if the metadata is de-identified, it may still contain sensitive company and strategic information that can be interpreted and analyzed. This is especially true if an AI is reviewing the data and identifying patterns, correlations, and contextual relationships.

What is particularly questionable is that enterprise customers are given the option to opt out, while Standard and Premium users do not have that option at all.

[Gor Greyan]

Hi @Marco Nowak

Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

I think there are reasonable arguments on both sides here.

From the positive side, Atlassian states that metadata contribution is de-identified and aggregated, rather than using information that directly identifies individual users. Using this type of product-usage data can help Atlassian understand usage patterns and improve its AI capabilities across a much larger dataset.

From a governance perspective, though, I can understand the concern. Even when data is de-identified, some organizations have strict policies around how their data can be used. For those customers, the bigger issue may not necessarily be what Atlassian collects, but the fact that Premium customers don't currently have the choice to opt out of metadata contribution.

Personally, I think giving administrators more control would make this easier to manage. Organizations could then make the decision based on their own security, privacy, and compliance requirements rather than having it determined by the subscription tier.

Interested to hear how other Premium customers are approaching this internally.