Should login data and settings be synched?

[C0ntroller]

As users often have a PC at home and a laptop for uni I would say there is a large user base who have this extention installed twice or more (I mean in Chrome the installation is synched anyways if sync is enabled).
Now if you add your login data or change some settings all data is only saved to the current device.

It would be fairly easy to implement this by replacing chrome.storage.local.* with chrome.storage.sync.*.
This won't break Firefox functionality (it would sync too) nor would it break if the user has sync deactivated. I don't know about Safari.

The question is: Do we want this?

[C0ntroller]

There is one special field that has to be to the manifest to work in Firefox.\

Note that the implementation of storage.sync in Firefox relies on the Add-on ID. If you use storage.sync, you must set an ID for your extension using the browser_specific_settings manifest.json key.

(Source)

Heres more information and examples for this key.

[OliEfr]

I agree, that syncing would increase user experience and that it can be implemented easily. However, in the past I made explicitly the decision to not do it. Here are my reasons, why I haven't done it:

• I think beeing "local only" is a good selling point. Espacially, because one needs to save credentials for the core function.
• That is why I advertise TUfast as beeing local only and its also written in the privacy statement. So legally, I would be required to change the privacy statement and notifiy the users about it.
• Usually, you enter your credentials only once. There is not much data to sync anyway (but still - ofc it would be a ux-improvement if it wouls be synced!)

And by the way....
The security concerns dont necessarely reflect my personal opinion. But at the beginning I got some requests regarding this issue - and I definetely understand these concerns. Any you know its just easy so say "we dont use servers" - its just the most secure way to go and everybody understands this.

[C0ntroller]

So I understand all of your points and concerns.

The point I'm trying to make is since this plugin gets updated steadily more and more settings will be needed to be done on multiple platforms manually if used. This also includes the import of the opal courses.

Maybe there could be a switch? Like with a description added that when enabled the user data is handled by Google/Mozilla sync services too?
Tbh I for myself don't really feel like implementing this ^^

[OliEfr]

Haha same goes for me, actually.

I would embrace that feature if its implemented well and - as you said - optional. However, I think thats much work - also compared to the user's benefit.

I think there are features with less workload, which still provide a greater benefit for the user. I am thinking about some features listed in the roadmap.

I am going ahead and add your proposition to that roadmap 😃