Cloud vs. Local data privacy

Can someone explain what gets sent to the cloud vs. what is done locally on the Firewalla box? I'm still unclear what gets sent to the Firewalla cloud.

From:
https://help.firewalla.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012760073-Questions-related-to-privacy-and-data-visibility
"The cloud will only know your devices visited sites computed using SHA hash. "

From:
https://help.firewalla.com/hc/en-us/articles/360049856394-How-to-Secure-Your-Network-with-Firewalla-Part-3-Protect
"Checking if there is a possibility that this flow may be bad and referencing the Cloud for a secondary check if needed."

So, guessing (please correct) I go to randomsite.com, the box does its thing and all is good there but it's possible that's a bad site, so it needs to check with the cloud. It creates a hash of what (site name, IP address?) and sends that to the cloud. The cloud compares that to its list of hashed "bad" sites and then sends back an "all good" or "block that" to the box.

If that's correct, then the hashing is really just to protect the data in transit as Firewalla can easy decrypt the site information, correct?

Assuming that's true, how long is that data kept? Is there any way to know what percentage of sites visited are sent to the cloud?

Sorry for all the assumptions, and questions, I just can't find a definitive answer and would like to know. Thanks for any clarification.

Rich T.

February 07, 2023 19:16

Any info?

Firewalla

February 07, 2023 20:58

Hashes are one way ... so there is no way to reverse them.

The hash in the second article is simply for search, if it needs a secondary check, it will go to the cloud for another look

February 07, 2023 23:51

I don't know if that's purposely vague, or I'm just not understanding. What gets sent to the cloud for the secondary check to have another look? Wouldn't any check done by the cloud need to know what (destination name or IP) it's checking?

February 08, 2023 00:49

Everything sent to the cloud is hashed ... First time is a hashed local check, and if there is a potential hash collision, then a secondary check using the same hash goes to the cloud

Cloud vs. Local data privacy

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