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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

#121

Post by haney »

jononor wrote: post #112
jamiequint wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm fine with people being patronizing towards whiny, entitled users who think they have a right to use any website they want on their terms. If you don't like someone running log analysis on their traffic then don't go to their website, nobody forced you to.

How exactly does one know which websites will do this and which wont, before going to the website?

I’d make the assumption that any client/server connection has some sort of logging mechanism? I don’t think browser fingerprinting and large scale cross site tracking is good but it seems a hard to take issue with being counted when visiting someone else’s website.

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

#122

Post by stevenicr »

oefrha wrote: post #111
stevenicr wrote: post #56

I used to spend a lot of time looking at logs and trying to make pages better and more content based upon the stats. Then google stopped giving keywords and searched-phrases - I've since found stats of little use most of the time. I wish google would make search-keyword-hiding opt-in for users, and perhaps auto-opted-in if using incognito mode. I am sure most of my visitors would be glad to provide the search phrases…

Can’t you find the keywords in Google Search Console?

Does gsc show the search terms used to find each page these days? It's been so long since I used it, not sure if it's changed or I never knew where to look.

Way back in the day, aw stats, webalizer, (and similar server side stats) would show which keywords were searched as totals, and show which pages were found by each set of keywords (and totals for each page / key phrase) - this info was valuable. I've not been aware of any way to gain that info since the google changes some time ago.

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

#125

Post by xfer »

jamiequint wrote: post #118
jononor wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How exactly does one know which websites will do this and which wont, before going to the website?

How do you know what businesses have cameras to count visitors before going into the business?

Noone puts up cameras to count the visitors. They put them to monitor their activity.

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

#126

Post by kerng »

xiaq wrote: post #80
harianus wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your business is to track people, yes. If it's to gather statistics without tracking people (like page views), I think it perfectly fine to bypass ad blockers. We even have a dedicated feature for bypassing ad blockers [1] because we think page views are not privacy invasive. We drop IP addresses from every request so there is no personal data in our database or logs. If you really want to block you can enable the…

The privacy game is about power, not about who is doing what right now. People shun Google's data collection because of what Google can do with the data, not what it has done or is doing; it only takes a single case of data misuse to reveal the power dynamics even if nothing has happened to them personally. You don't have to play the privacy game -- there is a lot of space between really respecting user's privacy and…

There have been countless cases for me personally where Googles tracking is creepy. Like Google Map recommendations, YouTube videos I should watch, misleading ads that send the user to malware bases on interest Google has about them etc, as well as exposure of unauthenticated Google+ APIs that allowed access to sensitive data to name a few.

I think saying nothing bad has happened is disingenuous. As soon as Google gets similar exposure as FB right now, internal whistleblowers might come forward also with more stories.

Also, couple of years ago Google was thoroughly compromised by at least one foreign government, ever wonder how much data was stolen?

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

#127

Post by aembleton »

AdriaanvRossum wrote: post #72

Love what you are doing here. A few points: 1. I would rename the pixel.png to something like image.png. Never call your script anything like tracking, analytics, or pixel when you don't want to be blocked by ad blockers. We use hello.js and hello.gif. [1] > Log file parsing is an old-skool but effective way of measuring the traffic to your site. 2. By using a pixel image you can bypass caching. When using server log…

Correct. I wasn't loading pixel.png as it was blocked by the Easy Privacy List: https://easylist.to/easylist/easyprivacy.txt

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

#128

Post by tangue »

johnchristopher wrote: post #55
speedplane wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real power of Google Analytics is not in the tracking code, it's with the front-end interface that any non-technical product manager or marketer can use. Tracking users is easy. Allowing non-technical folks with easy-to-use analysis tools is much harder.

The ever changing google analytics dashboard is not that easy to use for non technical folks. And then there's the whole "data analysis" thing.

Yep they redesigned it so much that I had to do a custom dashboard for a customer (think of it as a glorified counter from the 1990s) and I had to admit that even myself I get lost in Analytics and Adwords

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

#129

Post by busymom0 »

taormina wrote: post #108
busymom0 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How else can they tell where your data is and track how much they need to charge you? Are you being serious with this question? Regardless of whether they look at your data behind the scenes without telling you or not, you don't need to know what type of exact data and metadata you have to charge you. My AWS bill charges me for CPU hours uptime for the server, network requests, load balancing etc. None of this need…

I was thinking more about S3, where I know for a fact that are charging on a per-request basis and a volume basis. Amazon can and should absolutely charge them irrespective of the contents of the blob of data, and regardless of whether they read it or not, my point is encrypt it if you're worried.

Oh yea, I totally agree with the "encrypt it if you're worried" part. In my opinion, if you have any user sensitive info, you should absolutely use end to end encryption and ssl etc.

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

#130

Post by lkiernan »

jamiequint wrote: post #118
jononor wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How exactly does one know which websites will do this and which wont, before going to the website?

How do you know what businesses have cameras to count visitors before going into the business?

How do I know what physical trackers are being used before entering a physical location? I use my eyes.

Business often count foot fall with IR or laser; it's generally on the door. How do I know that using a businesses with cameras claiming to only count traffic are not actually gathering a whole lot more information to use/sell/change their mind later?

I have no skin in this game but the original comment was more focused on "we've decided to bypass your adblocker because we feel that our interests outweigh yours"

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