Your data, plainly
You’re running this on your own PC and it talks to the internet, so here is exactly what it does. Short version: it writes down the game, not you.
What it records
Mob names, levels and locations. What they dropped. Herb, ore, fishing and chest nodes: where they were and what they gave. Vendor inventories and prices. Trainer spells, with their prices and required levels. Quest IDs and names. Zone and map coordinates. The names of abilities used against you. All game content, the same stuff a wiki holds.
It also keeps a running record of your quest log: the quests in it, which are complete, your count toward each quest item, and the quest-starting items you carry. That way a quest item’s drop rate only counts the kills where it could actually drop for you.
It also notes where things are a little more exactly: with each herb, ore or fish, which way you faced and the way you had just walked up (a direction and a few yards); the name of a fishing pool you had just pointed at; each map’s corner positions; which NPC or wanted poster offered a quest and which took it back, by ID number; and, while you track minerals, herbs, treasure or fish, the dots on your minimap, by the node’s name and spot only, never a party member’s name. At your first attack on a creature it notes where you stood and which way you faced. With each quest you accept it notes your side and your class (like WARLOCK), so the map shows a quest only to those who can take it.
What it never records
Your character name, realm, account or player ID. Your gold or mail, or your bags beyond those quest-starting items. Chat of any kind, guild or friends lists, or anything you type.
Nothing about your computer, either: no hardware IDs, serial numbers, registry keys, Windows account, file paths or machine name.
What gets sent, and where
The file Boulder saves, plus a few small facts about it: a random install ID, which Boulder version wrote it, which WoW client build you’re on, how many records it holds, and one fixed word every copy sends, which keeps stray traffic off my script.
It goes to one address: a small script of mine on Google’s servers that writes into a Google Drive folder I own. It also downloads from that same place; “What it downloads” below says exactly what.
The install ID is a random number rolled on your machine the first time Boulder runs. It only tells whose capture is whose when everything is merged. It isn’t based on you or your computer, and deleting Boulder’s saved data gets you a new one.
Times are recorded in UTC only. No local time and no time zone, not even in file names.
What it downloads
The Harvester fetches two public files from that same address. One is versions.txt, a few hundred bytes: the newest Boulder version, the website to get it from, and which shared database is the newest. It always fetches that one, so you hear about a new version of Boulder. The other is the shared database itself, BoulderPool.lua: only if you said yes to “Download database updates?” when you installed (Yes is the default), and only when versions.txt names one newer than yours.
It checks when it starts, every 5th time WoW saves, every 8 hours, and when you pick Check for updates now in its tray menu. A new database is checked before it is used: its fingerprint must match, it must be plain data with nothing in it that could run, and it must be newer. Your old one is kept beside it, and WoW uses the new one from your next /reload or login.
A check sends nothing about you: no install ID, no game data. Everyone gets the same copy of the same two files. That is all the network activity there is: your capture (and redacted combat logs, if you said yes) going out, and those two files coming in.
Combat logs: off unless you say yes
Boulder switches on WoW’s own combat logging when you log in, the same as typing /combatlog. It also turns on the game’s Advanced Combat Logging, so each line says where the creature in it stands; that’s how the maps know where creatures are. That log stays on your disk. The installer asks whether to also send a redacted copy, and No is the default.
Before anything is sent, every player and pet name and ID is replaced with a placeholder like <player:47>, meaning “the 47th player in this file.” The same person is a different number in the next file. Your original log is never changed.
Being straight with you: this part is a filter, not a guarantee. Telling player names apart from spell, mob and place names is genuinely hard. We believe most names are removed, but no filter catches everything. Everything else on this page is guaranteed by the code, because the addon never handles your character, account or computer in the first place. If anything ever slips through the filter and we find it, it gets cleaned out, and every past log is scrubbed of it too.
I do not want your data. I’m one guy with a one-person LLC. I don’t want or care about your personal data. I have a vision for a WoW UI, and it needs a lot of WoW data.
WoW never cleans up its Logs folder, so the Harvester does, to keep our footprint on your computer as small as possible. It keeps your newest 20 logs and deletes older ones, but only after they’re redacted (and uploaded, if you share), and never the one WoW is writing. Want to keep more, fewer, or all of them? Rename keeplogs.txt.example in the Settings folder to keeplogs.txt and put a number in it, or the word off to keep everything. While you’re sharing, it never keeps fewer than 3.
Turning things off
No uploads at all: delete endpoint.txt in the Settings folder. Everything still collects and stays on your PC. No hidden setting turns it back on.
No database updates: delete download.txt in the Settings folder. Boulder keeps the numbers it came with until you install a new version. You still hear about new versions. Uploads and downloads are separate switches.
No combat-log uploads: delete combatlog.txt in the Settings folder. Redacted copies still save on your own disk in case you change your mind, and none of it leaves your machine. An update never turns this back on by itself.
Already uploaded something and want it gone? Send me your install ID and I’ll delete it, from the Drive folder and from my database. Without the ID I can’t tell your uploads apart from anyone else’s, which is the whole point. To find it, type /boulder show in game: it’s the line that starts with “install”. Write it down before you uninstall, because deleting Boulder’s saved data gives you a new one.
Read it yourself
Every file is plain text. Open Program\BoulderHarvester.ps1 in Notepad: it’s commented throughout. Your capture goes out in a function called Send-Capture, and redacted combat logs in Send-OneCombatLog.