Microsoft Clarity – Analytics for Websites • Hacker News Board

ksec wrote: post #3

Several elements inside Demo seems out of place on Safari. And may be just me, all these Microsoft web services' design looks absolutely awful.

> all these Microsoft web services' design looks absolutely awful

doesn't matter when you've already won

Re: Microsoft Clarity – Analytics for Websites

#6

Post by purplecats » Thu, Nov 05, 2020, 12:26 PM UTC

> Clarity is a free service.

this actually looks pretty neat, and seems super simple to install. the pricing is free. demo looks great.

I don't get the catch. is this just a marketing scheme to get their name out? why would they give out a data intensive product like this for free?

i just installed it, so we will see.

Re: Microsoft Clarity – Analytics for Websites

#7

Post by XCSme » Thu, Nov 05, 2020, 3:23 PM UTC

purplecats wrote: post #6

> Clarity is a free service. this actually looks pretty neat, and seems super simple to install. the pricing is free. demo looks great. I don't get the catch. is this just a marketing scheme to get their name out? why would they give out a data intensive product like this for free? i just installed it, so we will see.

The answer is always: "if the product is free, you are the product".

They would gain huge insights on websites and users.

Re: Microsoft Clarity – Analytics for Websites

#8

Post by XCSme » Thu, Nov 05, 2020, 3:25 PM UTC

If you care at least a bit about privacy, having such a service for "free" from Microsoft is really worrying.

You are probably better off going with something like Matomo or userTrack.

Re: Microsoft Clarity – Analytics for Websites

#9

Post by ffpip » Thu, Nov 05, 2020, 4:31 PM UTC

Thanks for warning me.

If you aren't in the tracking/ad industry, please add clarity.microsoft.com to your hosts file/ublock Origin.

Re: Microsoft Clarity – Analytics for Websites

#10

Post by arielm » Thu, Nov 05, 2020, 8:38 PM UTC

XCSme wrote: post #8

If you care at least a bit about privacy, having such a service for "free" from Microsoft is really worrying. You are probably better off going with something like Matomo or userTrack.

It’d be great if someone who speaks legalise could read the terms and share the highlights in plain English.

While the “if you’re not paying you’re the product” statement is still true, Microsoft’s motive can be more grand, ie. dethrone Google Analytics, as a business objective and less so about collecting usage data.

That said, it’s probably not the case.