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Stop donating your customers' data to Google Analytics

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Re: Stop donating your customers' data to Google Analytics

#111

Post by misterbwong »

lern_too_spel wrote: post #83
pixelbath wrote: post #67

I see a lot of suggestions for free or open-source analytics packages, but I would refrain from recommending anything you haven't personally used. I've tried to separate myself from Google in various ways, and one of those was to replace Google Analytics with open source software. I tried several; they're all either non-functional out of the box, or require significant time investment to even start approaching Google…

If you're using AdSense, you're already giving Google your visitor data, no matter what visitor analytics package you use.

If you're using AdSense, you're already -selling- Google your visitor data, no matter what visitor analytics package you use.

FTFY

Re: Stop donating your customers' data to Google Analytics

#112

Post by shiftless »

falcolas wrote: post #66
Nullabillity wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People said the same about Apple, and then it turned out to be bullshit.[0] And, big surprise, their customers did not seem to hold them accountable. So in the end, paying for stuff just shows that you're a more valuable product to sell. And gives them a great primary key to track you by. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22106536

I've said this to most naysayers, but AWS aims itself at businesses, who are much more forward with their pocketbook and lawyers in protecting their privacy. AWS can't safely market data stored in their systems without running the risk of being abandoned and sued into oblivion. Even Google doesn't dare monetize data stored in their enterprise customer's databases. EDIT: Failing to offer a privacy-enhancing feature, a…

Sorry, no. You have drunk the Kool-Aid. Here's the reality: Amazon is joined to the hip with Google, along with all of the other fake companies that are really owned by intelligence agencies, and have been from the beginning. Get a clue.

Re: Stop donating your customers' data to Google Analytics

#113

Post by shiftless »

falcolas wrote: post #59
adreamingsoul wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or is that wishful thinking? AWS and Amazon are in the buisness of collecting, storing, and processing data.

Can you provide a citation about that with AWS and its customers? Amazon itself, I have no problem believing (and have seen it in action. However, AWS is run separately from Amazon('s storefront, specifically). If AWS were really aggregating customer's data stored in AWS' platform, I think we'd be seeing a lot more about it in the news. And there would be a lot more than just Walmart advocating against its use.

You are an extremely naive person.

Re: Stop donating your customers' data to Google Analytics

#114

Post by oarsinsync »

nemothekid wrote: post #102
Nullabillity wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People said the same about Apple, and then it turned out to be bullshit.[0] And, big surprise, their customers did not seem to hold them accountable. So in the end, paying for stuff just shows that you're a more valuable product to sell. And gives them a great primary key to track you by. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22106536

> People said the same about Apple, and then it turned out to be bullshit. I don't understand this claim at all. It's always been clear that if your paranoid about the state, to turn off iCloud backups. And it's not like Apple is selling your backups either.

This is a tech oriented forum where we’re (as a group) more privacy conscious and more generally aware of how things are stored than the general public.

And yet even here, there is widespread surprise at the news that iCloud backups are not fully encrypted in such a way that keeps them private from Apple.

If we (as a group) have in some factions been caught by surprise, what are the chances that the general public are also not aware?

Re: Stop donating your customers' data to Google Analytics

#115

Post by october_sky »

sdan wrote: post #90

I'm currently building a free analytics service that's the fastest. Ever. Faster than Fathom, Simple Analaytics, pretty much everything except Google Analytics you can think of. https://sdan.io/pingpong Still building it, but you can sign up for when it launches here: https://forms.gle/MhojBWWfdiWjZatC7 (I know it's ironically on google forms and I'll move away soon) > https://sdan.io/pingpong

> I'm currently building a free analytics service that's the fastest. Ever.

How do you intend to make money from this free service?

Re: Stop donating your customers' data to Google Analytics

#116

Post by ptasci67 »

A bit tangential but a quick click on the author's name in the article and their bio reads:

> ex-Amazon contractor, front-end lover, accessibility nerd, down for building cool shit, especially Vue.js and Amplify.js consulting

My alarm bells ring when the answer to "stop using X" is to "start using Y" where Y == company I worked for.

This isn't to say GA is or isn't problematic, but the article's bias is problematic.

Re: Stop donating your customers' data to Google Analytics

#117

Post by awb »

Carpetsmoker wrote: post #78
awb wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed if you're already self-hosting. However, I don't know of a JS-free solution if you're hosting on a 3rd party like GitHub pages or Netlify for example. (Netlify does sell access to log data but it looks expensive for most hobby / personal sites)

You can probably use the "tracking pixel" method with at least some analytics tools. This is a very old which probably predates even the invention of JavaScript. Basically, if it accepts a GET with query parameters, it should work.

Right, but don't you still need to own a server in order to log these GET requests?

Re: Stop donating your customers' data to Google Analytics

#118

Post by anderspitman »

projproj wrote: post #91
anderspitman wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

19USD/mo for 3 sites seems pretty steep, and I have 0 interest in managing my own PHP service. Is there anything cheaper in this space?

Just a shot in the dark, but if you use Cloudflare already, their stats include view counts. It's also probably more accurate than relying on JS tracking tools because they can count the actual requests to your site.

My CloudFlare stats show multiple times as many hits as GA. I'm guessing it's not handling bots/spiders or something.
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