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Show HN: I made a privacy-first minimalist Google Analytics

simpleanalytics.io

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Re: Show HN: I made a privacy-first minimalist Google Analytics

#241

Post by iDemonix »

ecnahc515 wrote: post #215
LyndsySimon wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you do analytics without the IP address being "transferred to a third party"? Outside of self-hosting, either the user's browser is going to be making a request to the analytics provider (and therefore exposes their IP), or you're going to have to have some sort of proxy mechanism on the site's server that strips that information and sends it from there. Am I missing something?

It's exactly as you state. This is the problem. The IP address needs to be stripped before storing or sending to anyone else, or it's still something you need to consider as personal data. This matters for GDPR. So in effect, this service still has to adhere to GDPR, because it is in fact receiving IP addresses, regardless of them getting stored or not.

GDPR bores the hole off of me so I haven't done much reading, but I do remember a court dismissing a piracy case recently because 'IP addresses alone are not enough to identify an individual' - how would this play in to this scenario?

Re: Show HN: I made a privacy-first minimalist Google Analytics

#242

Post by iDemonix »

AdriaanvRossum wrote: post #2

Creator here. As a developer, I install analytics for clients, but I never feel comfortable installing Google Analytics because Google creates profiles for their visitors, and uses their information for apps (like AdWords). As we all know, big corporations unnecessarily track users without their consent. I want to change that. So I built Simple Analytics. To ensure that it's fast, secure, and stable, I built it entir…

Nice product!

Could I ask what tech you're using for the graph data? I'm working on a similar SaaS (not analytics) which requires graphs. I'm a DevOps engineer for an ISP, and I do a lot of work with things like Graphite/Carbon, Prometheus and so on - but I can't seem to settle on what to use for personal projects. Do you use a TSDB at all? Or are you just storing it in SQL for now?

Re: Show HN: I made a privacy-first minimalist Google Analytics

#243

Post by stordoff »

Drdrdrq wrote: post #150
samirm wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is absolutely no reason to collect and store window dimensions, other than for fingerprinting and tracking. Sure it might be an interesting piece of trivia for the dev, but it's not necessary for the dev to "make sure the website works great on all of those dimensions", since that much is already obvious and presumed when making websites these days.

Actually there is, this is one of the most interesting metrics. It doesn't have to be precise though, rounding to nearest 50px would be more than enough. I would argue that height and aspect ratio should be collected too. (I didn't downvote you FWIW)

Could you round to buckets as well - take the 10 (say) most common screen sizes, and round users to the nearest? That way users with odd screen sizes aren't identified.

Re: Show HN: I made a privacy-first minimalist Google Analytics

#244

Post by technion »

atesti wrote: post #228
clpwn wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention GoAccess is often more accurate since many visitors use extensions which block 3rd party trackers.

I don't understand why Google Analytics works at all nowadays: A large percentage of visitors uses an adblocker and don't they block tracking and analytics by default? Users like me must be complete ghosts unless one looks in their real server logs!

Honestly what Google Analytics tells me is that much less people use ad blockers than various discussions suggest.

I've had blogs do quite well on occasion and when that happens, GA seems to see > 75% of what the server logs do. And that's with a tech audience.

Re: Show HN: I made a privacy-first minimalist Google Analytics

#245

Post by AdriaanvRossum »

enriquto wrote: post #233
harianus wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- No plans to go open source with the backend, but I do show the code that is run in the browser. The visualisation of the data is not super important I think. - I don't save IP's, not even in the logs. - I don't have unique pageviews at the moment. I will in the future. If the referrer is the same as the current page, I will measure that as a non-unique. What do you think?

> No plans to go open source with the backend You say that you do not store IP addresses, but why should anybody believe it? Modern security is based on proof, not on trust.

> You say that you do not store IP addresses, but why should anybody believe it?

I can show the code, I will probably do this in my next blog post, but that does not guaranty anything.

> Modern security is based on proof, not on trust.

Is it? So if there is a hosted version of a open source tool, you are sure they use the same code on the hosted version a in the open source tool? It's still based on trust.

Re: Show HN: I made a privacy-first minimalist Google Analytics

#246

Post by sharcerer »

LyndsySimon wrote: post #134
sharcerer wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats no a good way to make a decision. Big,small doesn't matter. What matters is who is providing better security? When 2 parties big,small are collecting data ,then the party which can act on security vulnerabilities quickly and has great security engineers and dedicated teams like Project Zero- is the much better choice. People nowadays assume that a small,indie developer is a good guy. I am just pointing out that…

I totally agree on the security aspect, but I think we're talking about different threat models. Security matters if your concern is the data leaking to a potential malicious actor. The concern that I'm speaking to is the intended use of the data. Google is definitely going to use it for ad targeting and building a "shadow profile", but a small developer probably won't. This one says they won't, but even if they do t…

Probably. Wow, you used the word "probably". I guess you aren't aware of the many cases wherein when a Chrome extension gets popular, indie developers are contacted by some company and many have sold their extension are let them collect data. Also yhis data gets sold to 3rd parties,many such cases with small-medium websites have occured. Remember Unroll.me

Also, Google knows how to make profiles and it knows the importance of that data amd keeping it safe. It is also somewhat answerable to Consumer groups,users,shareholders,regulatory bodies. Indie dev doesn't know how to make good profile, more likely to sell the data to make revenue. Not ridiculing indie devs, just ridiculing your assumptions that if a solo dev is an angel.

https://www.labnol.org/internet/sold-chrome-extension/28377/

https://m.slashdot.org/story/328731

Re: Show HN: I made a privacy-first minimalist Google Analytics

#247

Post by sharcerer »

marichards wrote: post #234
seandougall wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me that, with the exception of a rogue employee, all of those examples are at a greater risk of occurring with a small, independent provider. Google almost certainly has more security resources, more legal resources and political clout, and isn’t likely to be acquired any time soon. I can’t say I love having Google track me, but I don’t feel any better about someone else doing it either.

If the marketplace was full of independent trackers (which I'm not suggesting is a good idea, because third party trackers are bad in the first place), then as they get compromised, only a small subset of data is lost... The chance of losing everything or enough data to pair to your real identity is a lot lower. It's like IDs in physical activity. If you visit your bank they track you by a different id to the library…

Humans make systems. Teams like Project Zero (of Google) have contributed a ton to security. They prioritize security a lot.

Re: Show HN: I made a privacy-first minimalist Google Analytics

#248

Post by fiatjaf »

chpmrc wrote: post #168
fiatjaf wrote: post #119

This feels like a rant, but I've posted my https://trackingco.de/ here multiple times, which has very similar proposal (and is cheaper) but never got a single line of feedback.

Some more (constructive) feedback: way too much text. The design of the landing page does matter (even for developers :) some of us at least). There should be a better way to convey the message.

I've changed the landing page twice. Before the current "minimalist" design I had one that was full of colors and partial screenshots. Made no noticeable difference in engagement :P

Re: Show HN: I made a privacy-first minimalist Google Analytics

#249

Post by fiatjaf »

harrisreynolds wrote: post #159
fiatjaf wrote: post #119

This feels like a rant, but I've posted my https://trackingco.de/ here multiple times, which has very similar proposal (and is cheaper) but never got a single line of feedback.

I feel your pain. You should fix your live demo link ( https://www.dropbox.com/s/z3qceg8mg86n5m1/Screenshot%202018-... ). Another bit of feedback is to draft on as many related stories as you can here in HN (like you are doing now).

Thank you very much.
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