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Show HN: I replaced Google Analytics with simple log-based analytics

benhoyt.com

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Re: Show HN: I replaced Google Analytics with simple log-based analytics

#41

Post by NicoJuicy »

benhoyt wrote: post #9
amanzi wrote: post #6

If you're using JavaScript to add the pixel code, why not also include other metrics you can get easily with JS like screen resolution?

Yeah, good question. I wanted to do that, but GoAccess is a web server log parser and doesn't support custom fields (you don't get screen resolution via web logs, so it kinda makes sense). See: https://goaccess.io/man I could probably hack it and overload different HTTP status codes to mean different screen sizes or something, but I didn't consider device size to be important for me. GoAccess does break down the User…

And windows is only 50 % on desktop? Linux is 20%?

Can you give a screenshot? These stats look way off to what I'm used to.

Re: Show HN: I replaced Google Analytics with simple log-based analytics

#42

Post by busymom0 »

luckylion wrote: post #32
busymom0 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this was the case, I think we would have had some amazon whistleblower already blow this info and would be widely reported on.

I agree, it probably hasn't happened. Yet, that is. It might next year, and we might have a whistle blower then.

I agree with that. Something like that could happen. Question is, how do we stop it? This reminds me of when Facebook owned Parse dot com and a lot of developers used parse for storing user data. Given Facebook's track record with privacy, I won't be surprised if they used it.

Re: Show HN: I replaced Google Analytics with simple log-based analytics

#43

Post by NicoJuicy »

taormina wrote: post #22
busymom0 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this was the case, I think we would have had some amazon whistleblower already blow this info and would be widely reported on.

I'm not accusing Amazon or anyone else of anything in particular. I'm just reminding people that even if you encrypt all of your data at rest, that at a minimum, every service provider of something like AWS is collecting plenty of metadata about your data. They have to. How else can they tell where your data is and track how much they need to charge you?

In short, you have nothing to prove it.

Sorry, but :

> How else can they tell where your data is and track how much they need to charge you?

You say companies need to track metadata for pricing and they don't know where your data is without tracking? Huh. I mean, that answer is surreal. I thought you had a console to set everything up and pricing is based on cost + wanted profit.

AWS was like something of 33% profit. Nothing of their pricing is based on GA :p ( like wtf)

Re: Show HN: I replaced Google Analytics with simple log-based analytics

#45

Post by JensRex »

octref wrote: post #4

> Obviously with log parsing you don’t get as much information as a JavaScript-heavy, Google Analytics-style system. There’s no screen sizes, no time-on-page metrics, etc. But that’s okay for me! This also bypasses Ad blocker. In the case you have a large percentage of technical audience (who presumably would have Ad blocker installed) this log can be way more accurate than GA. However this still requires setting up…

>This also bypasses Ad blocker.

Not for me. `/pixel.png?` is blocked by default in uBlock.

Re: Show HN: I replaced Google Analytics with simple log-based analytics

#46

Post by dewey »

sdan wrote: post #40
benhoyt wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would really love it if GitHub pages or Netlify can provide some simple server-side tracking. It doesn't match GA but in some cases that's all I need. That would be a great feature for GitHub Pages! Just a simple interface like https://simpleanalytics.io/simpleanalytics.io would serve most GH Pages use cases, I would think.

I feel like that should already exist, but surprisingly it doesn't. Hopefully Github works on it soon!

They already owned an analytics service for a while but it changed owners recently. Still looks almost the same though https://get.gaug.es/ - so I guess they decided it’s not part of their core business.

Re: Show HN: I replaced Google Analytics with simple log-based analytics

#47

Post by secfirstmd »

Zolomon wrote: post #21
abhin4v wrote: post #19

Why not use a self-hosted analytics software like https://matomo.org/ ?

I wish they had a simple Docker image available with everything setup and configurable from a single file. The installation process is complex and under documented, IMHO. But the software is pretty nice!

Even more simple, they have a Cloudron image. Click and deploy.

Re: Show HN: I replaced Google Analytics with simple log-based analytics

#48

Post by dewey »

ifcho wrote: post #25
Zolomon wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish they had a simple Docker image available with everything setup and configurable from a single file. The installation process is complex and under documented, IMHO. But the software is pretty nice!

Why do you need Docker for a simple PHP & MySQL script? To install it you just need to setup a MySQL database and enter the credentials in the setup script. Finally, add the tracking code to your site, but that's the same for every analytics engine.

And you also need to set up a bunch of things in your web server, add the cron jobs, run the update script and hope everything still works afterwards etc.

Re: Show HN: I replaced Google Analytics with simple log-based analytics

#49

Post by thinkingemote »

foota wrote: post #11
taormina wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it is incredibly fair to say that you shouldn't put data onto the servers of a company if you mind them reading that data. Why should I assume they aren't? At a bare minimum, the metadata is being actively consumed by the parent company. I don't think this is AWS specific at all.

?? Because a cloud company using data like that would be corporate suicide?

"if you are not a fan of big brother".....

"That would be corporate suicide"

Yes sometimes protecting personal privacy might be opposed to a corporations profits. The horror of it!

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