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Self-host analytics for better privacy and accuracy

blog.filippo.io

61–70 of 93 posts

Re: Self-host analytics for better privacy and accuracy

#61
post #17

Piwik has the problem that it writes directly to MySQL as the activity happens. If your database is down, you lose data. If you have a spike of traffic above what your DB can handle in writes, you lose data. Snowplow doesn't have this problem.

You can query your writes in Redis, so it won't be lost if your database goes down. https://piwik.org/faq/how-to/faq_19738/

Note to anybody reading this but not following the link: parent poster means "queue your writes in Redis" and not "query."

Re: Self-host analytics for better privacy and accuracy

#62
post #24

One potential problem: if you, say, test out self-hosted alongside GA, and get different numbers, people are going to question the value of the self-hosted thing.

They should question both, but maybe GA more. GA is an approximation and absolutely not completely correct.

Re: Self-host analytics for better privacy and accuracy

#64
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The default Piwik Sandstorm install has "piwik" nowhere in the URL.

Yeah, unfortunately it shows up as https://ls4an735rucvfa6ps6bb.filippo.sandcats.io/embed.js - it's getting to the point where I need to start performing actual content inspection.

How come?

Re: Self-host analytics for better privacy and accuracy

#65
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is their any difference in data ownership between GA and parsely?

Data ownership in GA is a "gray area" that becomes less gray if you pay $150K/yr for "GA Premium". Google has mixed incentives in running its free analytics service. It gets web-wide analytics data, it uses data to help it sell more AdWords to customers, and it integrates GA with other services, like their display advertising products (DFP, etc.) From a practical standpoint, you don't "own" analytics data when a) you…

While I find your stance on privacy very refreshing for an analytics company, hiding your pricing info behind a sales rep is a huge turnoff for me. If you feel your pricing is reasonable for the service that you provide, I really don't see why you can't just display it proudly on your site.

If SpaceX can afford to not hide their pricing behind a sales rep, so can you: http://www.spacex.com/about/capabilities

Re: Self-host analytics for better privacy and accuracy

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Data ownership in GA is a "gray area" that becomes less gray if you pay $150K/yr for "GA Premium". Google has mixed incentives in running its free analytics service. It gets web-wide analytics data, it uses data to help it sell more AdWords to customers, and it integrates GA with other services, like their display advertising products (DFP, etc.) From a practical standpoint, you don't "own" analytics data when a) you…

While I find your stance on privacy very refreshing for an analytics company, hiding your pricing info behind a sales rep is a huge turnoff for me. If you feel your pricing is reasonable for the service that you provide, I really don't see why you can't just display it proudly on your site. If SpaceX can afford to not hide their pricing behind a sales rep, so can you: http://www.spacex.com/about/capabilities

[deleted]

Re: Self-host analytics for better privacy and accuracy

#67
post #26

Piwik has the problem that it writes directly to MySQL as the activity happens. If your database is down, you lose data. If you have a spike of traffic above what your DB can handle in writes, you lose data. Snowplow doesn't have this problem.

They also have a problem that their password hashing method is still md5[0]. [0] - https://developer.piwik.org/api-reference/Piwik/Auth

Piwik started in 2007. It was inexcusable to use md5 then. The problem is that it was ever md5, not that it is still md5.

That really doesn't inspire confidence that they know what they're doing. md5 is a canary in the coal mine for me, and I definitely won't use Piwik now.

Re: Self-host analytics for better privacy and accuracy

#68
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why isn't it scalable?

MySQL

It can scale pretty far before it becomes an issue. Years ago I ran it on our main DB for sites that got over 1 million visits a month with no noticeable overhead. If I had it on its own server with its own DB it could have handled far more traffic.

Re: Self-host analytics for better privacy and accuracy

#69
post #67
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also have a problem that their password hashing method is still md5[0]. [0] - https://developer.piwik.org/api-reference/Piwik/Auth

Piwik started in 2007. It was inexcusable to use md5 then. The problem is that it was ever md5, not that it is still md5. That really doesn't inspire confidence that they know what they're doing. md5 is a canary in the coal mine for me, and I definitely won't use Piwik now.

To be fair, they aren't an encryption service or something. They INSERT INTO visitor_count. So far as "inspiring confidence" needs to go for such a thing, I wouldn't write them off just yet.

Re: Self-host analytics for better privacy and accuracy

#70
post #45

"Self-hosting analytics for better privacy and accuracy." Then why using google fonts which is listed by Disconnect.me (used by Firefox) as a tracking domain? Isn't that paradoxical?

Oh, hey, good point. Let me fix that. EDIT: Done. Not exactly straightforward to download Google Fonts but there are great helpers around. Got rid of CDNjs as well, since CloudFlare has HTTP/2 now. No 3rd parties left except GA, which will go in a day or two.

> Not exactly straightforward to download Google Fonts

Hah, wonder why that is.

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