Last updated: 17 September 2026.
FTA Buddy is a tool for FRC event volunteers: FTAs, FTAAs, CSAs and RIs. It shows live field data, keeps a record of each match, and holds notes and logs that help a volunteer fix a robot. This page says what it collects, how long it keeps it, who can see it, and what leaves our servers.
When an event runs FTA Buddy, a browser extension on the FTA's laptop relays what the field sees: for each robot in each match, roughly twice a second, the battery voltage, the round trip time, packet counts, radio signal and bandwidth, and whether the robot is enabled, connected, or in a brownout. It also records match schedules, cycle times, and E-stop and A-stop states.
Where the event turns on the extension's FMS API Calls option, FTA Buddy also collects the match log FMS keeps for each robot in each match, along with team lists and schedule details. With that option off, no match logs are captured and schedule data comes from The Blue Alliance instead.
This is the field's own view of a match. It does not include camera images, robot code, or anything a robot sends over the network beyond the counts above.
This data is collected under the authority of the event's FTA, who chooses to run the app and decides which volunteers get access to the event.
Volunteers write notes about teams and robots, and teams can submit their own notes through a public link the event chooses to share. Notes can be read by volunteers at other events that team attends, which is stated on the page where a note is written.
A team can send their own files to the volunteers at their event: Driver Station logs, WPILib data logs, CTRE Hoot logs, SystemCore support bundles, telemetry exports, and their robot code. This is always something the team chooses to do; nothing is taken from a robot automatically.
An upload is readable by the volunteers signed in to that event. We work out which event and which match the files belong to from the files themselves.
A volunteer can create a link to part of an upload, or to a single match log, so that somebody without an account can read it. Anyone holding the link can read exactly the files the volunteer selected, and nothing else in the upload. A volunteer can revoke a link at any time. A volunteer creating a link is told to share it only with volunteers at that event, or, with the team's permission, the FRC CSA Slack.
Three things send data to somebody else, and each is a volunteer's deliberate action rather than something that happens on its own:
Notes, match logs and team uploads are archived at the end of the calendar year the event ran in. The event closes to volunteers at that point, so none of it is reachable in the app any more. It is not deleted; it stays in storage.
A volunteer account holds an email address, a display name, and a role. Sign-in is handled by Firebase Authentication, which holds the credentials; we store a profile row and which events the account belongs to. Push notification subscriptions are stored for volunteers who turn them on.
We keep ordinary web server logs, which include IP addresses and browser details, for operating and securing the site.
Where an event connects FTA Buddy to Slack, notes and tickets are posted to the channel the event chooses.
Separately, we read the conversations volunteers have in the public channels of the FRC CSA Slack workspace, so that the troubleshooting assistant can draw on what experienced volunteers have already worked out. Team numbers and event names are stripped before anything is stored, and names are kept only for FIRST, REV and CTRE staff. Files and logs posted there are not read or stored.
FTA Buddy is for event volunteers. Accounts are not intended for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has provided personal information, email me@filipkin.com and we will remove it.
We may update this policy. Changes take effect when they are posted here, and the date at the top says when it last changed.
Questions about this policy, a request about your data, or any other concern can go to me@filipkin.com, or to the FTA Buddy Discord.