By providing transparency into the development process, some developers fear that GitClear can be used like "Big Brother" to monitor their every commit (or lack thereof). These developers might imagine that GitClear will foster a low-trust environment where a developer's every action is being scrutinized by the eye in the sky.
We take this concern seriously enough that we're the only Developer Analytics tool you'll find that has created a policy that obliges us to be explicit and transparent about how GitClear's data can and can't be used.
GitClear's policy on being the most developer-friendly data analytics tool describes the obligations we take upon ourselves to prevent encroachment on the privacy of developers. This is our published commitment to engage with our community to design the most abuse-proof Developer Analytics tool on the market.
For those that need a tl;dr version of how GitClear prevents Big Brother-like behavior from bad managers:
Only individual developers can filter on an individual developer's stats (their own). All aggregated historical stats are presented by team, not individual.
There are no reports on GitClear that are "hidden" or undocumented. Any report that a manager can see, a developer can also see.
All data shown by GitClear is drawn from the already-publicly-visible git history that teams generate. The commits shown are already available to any individual contributor via git log
GitClear believes that any tool that instruments a development team's output has an obligation to ensure the generated data is used for the good of its developers.
We believe that all Developer Analytics tools ought to publish a publicly visible policy document that enumerates the considerations that have gone into preventing its data from being used to compare teammates or otherwise be used toward creepy ends. Most companies do not publish such documents, leaving developers to guess at what sort of data is being used behind the curtain by managers and executives.
Developers are right to be vigilant against the possibility that an analytics company will follow the incentive of empowering executives to directly compare developers, or simulate their offboarding. GitClear will not participate in the proliferation of a divide between what managers see and what developers see. That transparency is the best hedge against concern that there could be a secret trove of information being accessed by an higher class.