Data availability to users for shinyapps.io

shiny shinyapps.io
#1

Hi!

I deployed the Rmd file along with the input data several days ago to shinyapps.io. Not sure why but after I deployed, the web application went asleep and I cannot access to it. However, one day after I deployed, I realized that the input data was sensitive so I immediately deleted the applications in my shinyapps.io account. (they were all "sleeping") But I would like to know that, is it possible for a user to download the data within a deployed application? If the web applications went asleep, can the users view the plot or access to the data at all? Can I know who have downloaded or viewed the plots after the web applications deleted? I used the free plan, and did not change any setting of the account so all settings were set to the default.

I searched the answers on the internet for a while but have not found a solid one. Can anyone please help me with these questions? (they are urgent and super important to me) Thank you a lot in advance!!

#2

To the best of my knowledge, users can not download data files from shinyapps.io, only access what you expose (through your Rmd file or app). Anything you exposed they can save to their computer.

To see if anyone accessed it, you can open your shinyapps.io dashboard, go to the "metrics" tab, and see the number of connections. Note that it gets averaged over time, so if you display "1 day" you can see individual connections, if you display "1 week" or "1 month" you can miss a short connection (that gets averaged out). To get detailed data on a longer time period, you may be able to use rsconnect::showMetrics() as detailed here, though I have no personal experience with that. Note that if you connected to your application yourself, that will appear as a connection.

For detailed information about which URL connected and did what, as far as I can tell shinyapps.io does not register that automatically. It is available if you put code for that in your application (e.g. a Google Analytics tracker), but if you didn't I'm afraid you can't find out after the fact.

The fact that the application went asleep just means that no one used it for some duration before you looked. However it is possible that someone used it at some point, then stopped using it, and the application went asleep before you looked. Unless you kept looking every 10 minutes between the moment you published it and the moment you took it down.

1 Like
#3

Thanks for your reply! It is helpful.

#4

One more question, if an application has been deleted, can the owner figure out who accessed the app?

#5

Once the application is deleted you cannot access it anymore, as it is not listed in the dashboard anymore.?
Even then you could only see how often the app was used, but not by whom. There is a possibility to add Google-trackers to the app, so you would be able to extract the IPs but I guess you didn't do this.
Maybe you are just too concerned.
You are right, in the very moment the app is published it could be seen by the world, however the chances for this to happen within a day are very low. (Anyone who uploaded a video somewhere and hoping it becomes viral might agree)

  1. As stated before users could only see what you allow them to see, only the tables, plots, text you publish, not the full-data, or the source code.
  2. Users need to find the app, the combination of your user-name and app-title. If you didn't already published a list with apps called "App1", "App2", "App3" and someone might be guessing if an "App4" exists chances are small. We already learned shiny-apps aren't listed by search engines (1), as they visit the page just for a fraction of a second and don't wait for the server to be started...
  3. An User need to see your data is important/ confidential so it can be used (against you), or is of interest for someone else, so it's worth to download the data.

So I wouldn't be too concerned.
Again: As long as your app is online you can check how often it was used, once it's deleted it's more complicated..

(1) How can I make shiny-app appear on search engine? - #6 by ian

2 Likes
#6

Thank you Matthias for your reply.

#7

This topic was automatically closed 7 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.

If you have a query related to it or one of the replies, start a new topic and refer back with a link.