[Bug]: openvino_telemetry references and sends telemetry to Google Analytics by default

[SkyGolem]

Checklist

• I have updated to the latest available Frigate version.
• I have cleared the cache of my browser.
• I have tried a different browser to see if it is related to my browser.
• I have tried reproducing the issue in incognito mode to rule out problems with any third party extensions or plugins I have installed.

Describe the problem you are having

openvino_telemetry references and sends telemetry to Google Analytics by default
This is not expected for an opensource solution.

The frigate container includes the Python package openvino_telemetry, and it contains code that sends telemetry to Google Analytics by default, specifically:
backend_url = 'https://www.google-analytics.com/collect'
and
self.backend_url = "https://www.google-analytics.com/mp/collect?measurement_id={}&api_secret={}"
These are standard GA endpoints used for client- and server-side tracking.

Frigate uses OpenVINO as one of its supported acceleration backends (particularly for Intel hardware). Unfortunately, the openvino_telemetry module is part of the official OpenVINO distribution from Intel — and it defaults to enabling telemetry, including Google Analytics tracking.
This is not Frigate’s fault, but a side effect of OpenVINO's packaging, however this privacy issue should be mitigated.

Attempting to Disable OpenVINO Telemetry at Runtime as per their ?? Official ref:
https://docs.openvino.ai/2025/about-openvino/additional-resources/telemetry.html
to try and disable OpenVINO’s built-in telemetry, is not respected by the openvino_telemetry Python package bundled in the Frigate image, i.e.
Setting the following environment variable in your Docker container:

    environment:
      - OV_TF_DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1

Steps to reproduce

Example: Using a vanilla install of the docker container on Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS Server minimised, with the google-analytics output shown directly after being composed:

user1@frigate:~$ mkdir frigate
user1@frigate:~$ cd  frigate/
user1@frigate:~/frigate$ docker compose up -d
[+] Running 8/8
 ? frigate Pulled                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       398.6s
   ? b983e127c643 Pull complete                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          19.4s
   ? 9561d7da5b61 Pull complete                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         367.4s
   ? 1e09f9dc7e03 Pull complete                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         396.1s
   ? 856cb1708827 Pull complete                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         397.2s
   ? 90ffa7e70cd3 Pull complete                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         397.3s
   ? 6c2bf1d6b5e4 Pull complete                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         397.3s
   ? 98aba4877af2 Pull complete                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         397.7s
[+] Running 2/2
 ? Network frigate_default  Created                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       0.1s
 ? Container frigate        Started                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       1.2s
user1@frigate:~/frigate$ docker exec -it frigate grep -r "google-analytics" /usr/
/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/openvino_telemetry/backend/backend_ga4.py:        self.backend_url = "https://www.google-analytics.com/mp/collect?measurement_id={}&api_secret={}".format(
/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/openvino_telemetry/backend/backend_ga.py:    backend_url = 'https://www.google-analytics.com/collect'
grep: /usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/openvino_telemetry/backend/__pycache__/backend_ga4.cpython-39.pyc: binary file matches
grep: /usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/openvino_telemetry/backend/__pycache__/backend_ga.cpython-39.pyc: binary file matches

Version

0.15.0-6cb5cfb

In which browser(s) are you experiencing the issue with?

N/A

Frigate config file

record:
  enabled: true
  retain:
    days: 30

snapshots:
  enabled: true
  retain:
    default: 14

detectors:
  cpu1:
    type: cpu

objects:
  track:
    - person
    - dog
    - cat

cameras:
  cam1:
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://user:[email protected]:554/stream1
          roles:
            - detect
            - record
    detect:
      width: 1920
      height: 1080
      fps: 5

  cam2:
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://user:[email protected]:554/stream1
          roles:
            - detect
            - record
    detect:
      width: 1920
      height: 1080
      fps: 5
version: 0.15-1

docker-compose file or Docker CLI command

version: '3.9'
services:
  frigate:
    container_name: frigate
    privileged: true
    restart: unless-stopped
    image: ghcr.io/blakeblackshear/frigate:stable
    shm_size: "512mb"
    devices:
      - /dev/dri:/dev/dri  # VAAPI device for AMD
    ports:
      - "5000:5000"  # Web UI
      - "8554:8554"  # RTSP restream
      - "1935:1935"  # Live stream
    volumes:
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
      - ./config:/config
      - /media/frigate:/media/frigate

Relevant Frigate log output

N/A

Relevant go2rtc log output

N/A

Operating system

Other Linux

Install method

Docker Compose

Network connection

Wired

Camera make and model

All

Screenshots of the Frigate UI's System metrics pages

N/A

Any other information that may be helpful

Suggested Fix:
Strip the OpenVINO Telemetry Package from your standard Frigate docker images, removing the telemetry package.

Dockerfile:

# Base image from Frigate
FROM ghcr.io/blakeblackshear/frigate:stable

# Remove openvino-telemetry (and any cached .pyc)
RUN pip uninstall -y openvino-telemetry && \
    find /usr/local/lib/python3.9/ -name '*openvino_telemetry*' -exec rm -rf {} + && \
    find /usr/local/lib/python3.9/ -name '*.pyc' -exec rm -f {} +

[hawkeye217]

Thanks for the suggested workaround for this behavior, it will benefit the users who are concerned about the telemetry.

If attempting to disable telemetry according to the official OpenVINO documentation is not working, a bug report should be filed with them.

[SkyGolem]

No problem and I agree a bug report should be filed with OpenVINO.

It would be good if you could update the standard frigate docker images though, so users don't have to re-build them as a custom image.

[hawkeye217]

Yes, we'll plan to do this. Thanks again for the report. We'll leave this open and investigate further.

[NickM-27]

We will want to confirm if the telemetry is actually being sent by default, I have not seen any evidence of this in my adguard logs. I would have some concerns of forcefully removing the package as it may lead to issues if another openvino package attempts to reference the package.

Ideally, assuming the telemetry is being sent by default in some cases, the env var will be fixed to work correctly and we can just set that by default.

[SkyGolem]

Understood.

Here is a Pi-hole screenshot showing it blocking dns lookups every time the frigate docker container is restarted, if it helps to visualise the issue.

[NickM-27]

got it, I did notice that the docs linked above are an archive, perhaps the current docs suggest how to correctly disable this

[NickM-27]

This is fixed in #18015

[SkyGolem]

Awesome! Thank you and fantastic work ethic.