Privacy: Disable all external request to deployer.org by default

[safecat]

I recently started using Deployer 7.4 as a replacement for Fabric as my deployment tool, but I've noticed a delay of 1-5 seconds when executing tasks. After some investigation, I found that Deployer is making requests to three URLs during task execution:

• https://deployer.org/check-updates/7.4.0
• https://deployer.org/api/stats
• https://deployer.medv.io/banners/

Since I am in China, where access to foreign URLs is slower, these requests are causing the delay. The last two requests can be disabled through different environment variables (DEPLOYER_BANNER, DO_NOT_TRACK), but the check for updates cannot be disabled.

Based on issues #1196, #1477, and #3577, I suggest that you carefully consider the privacy implications of these three requests. Since the allow_anonymous_stats setting has been removed, users are not informed that Deployer will make these three requests by default, even after running the dep init command. I suggest that in future updates, Deployer should avoid making these requests by default and instead add configuration options such as allow_anonymous_stats, allow_banner, and allow_check_update. Additionally, dep init could include prompts (with default answers being "yes"), and only after receiving explicit consent or finding an explicit declaration in the deployer.php script should these requests be sent.

I appreciate your hard work, and I understand how these features contribute to the project's growth. However, as Deployer is now a well-known PHP open-source project, making external requests without consent could lead to significant privacy and security concerns. If you agree, I would be happy to submit a PR.

(Translated from Chinese by ChatGPT)

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Chinese version:

我最近开始使用deployer 7.4替代fabric作为我的部署工具，但执行task时经常有1-5秒的卡顿，经过排查，我发现deployer在执行task时会请求三个地址：

• https://deployer.org/check-updates/7.4.0
• https://deployer.org/api/stats
• https://deployer.medv.io/banners/

我在中国，访问国外URL较慢，所以这三个请求造成了卡顿。后两个请求可以通过不同的环境变量（DEPLOYER_BANNER、DO_NOT_TRACK）禁用，而检查更新的链接无法禁用。

根据 #1196 #1477 #3577，我建议您慎重考虑这3个请求带来的隐私问题，由于allow_anonymous_stats设置已经被取消，即使通过dep init命令也无法得知deployer会默认执行3个请求。我建议deployer在日后的更新中默认不做这3个请求，增加配置项allow_anonymous_stats/allow_banner/allow_check_update，在dep init中增加询问（默认答案可以是yes），仅在询问后得到肯定或deployer.php脚本中存在显式声明时才发送这些请求。

感谢您的辛勤工作，我理解这些feature对项目成长的帮助。但deployer现在已经是一个著名的PHP开源项目，未经同意就请求外部链接可能造成严重的隐私和安全问题。如果您同意，我可以提交一个PR。

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[antonmedv]

Sure let’s consider adding one place of configuration.

[safecat]

Here are my suggests:

https://deployer.org/check-updates/7.4.0 Add auto_check_update config, false by default, ask in dep init and default answer is yes

https://deployer.org/api/stats Add allow_anonymous_stats config, false by default, ask in dep init and default answer is yes. Environment variable DO_NOT_TRACK=true is also accepted (with lower priority than config) to be compatible with old version user.

https://deployer.medv.io/banners/ Looks like deprecated, maybe remove directly?

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue has been automatically closed. Please, open a discussion for bug reports and feature requests.

Read more: [https://github.com/deployphp/deployer/discussions/3888]