5 ms·

Disclaimer: I'm a bit of a GA power user; although being on the technical side, I'm not really sympathetic towards the marketing uses for analytical data. Ther

Disclaimer: I'm a bit of a GA power user; although being on the technical side, I'm not really sympathetic towards the marketing uses for analytical data. There's a tough line to draw between excessive and sufficient instrumentation for a given app, and a business will probably opt for more than less data. I'm not sure that's a moral argument against tools like GA, though. Especially given one particularly compelling feature of Universal Analytics (GA's latest incarnation): you can definitely water down what you collect. (https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/protocol/v1/ https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection...) Want to opt out of collecting advertising info? Say so in the UI. Anonymize/obliterate the IP/geolocation info? Override the IP field to a static value. Override the intrusive collection of User-Agent values? Override the ua parameter. Prevent collection of granular page info? Override the dl, dp, dt fields. Stop collecting referral info? Blank out the dr, cs, cm, cn, and remove UTMs/GCLIDs from the URLs you report. In fact, you can even implement measurement protocol serverside – GA's ancient forebear, Urchin Analytics, actually began as a server-log parsing utility! (https://urchin.biz/urchin-software-corp-89a1f5292999 https://urchin.biz/urchin-software-corp-89a1f5292999) Reduce JavaScript use altogether but keep it clientside? Implement a static GA pixel: <img src="https://google-analytics.com/collect?v=1&tid=UA-XXXXX-Y&cid=somevalue&dp=%2Fsomepath&ua=YourUserAgent&..."> Now, mistrust of a third party with said data is a relevant issue, but slightly different from the technical bones of this piece's argument.

StavrosK 9y ago
That's a very interesting notion, I didn't know you could use a GA pixel. That's a much better alternative to the full-blown JS tracker, thank you.
- heheocoenev 9y ago
  What about running your own service like piwik?
  - StavrosK 9y ago
    That would be best, I tried to run it for me but my needs are too simple for a full-blown solution like that. I'm currently trying to just add a tracking image to my own server so I can count visits.
    - gjjrfcbugxbhf 9y ago
      Server logs?
      - StavrosK 9y ago
        I'm using netlify, which is a global CDN, and doesn't provide logs :/
lucideer 9y ago
> Anonymize/obliterate the IP/geolocation info? Override the IP field to a static value. This might affect the IP you see in the GA dashboard, but it's worth noting that Google still get the user's IP as long as the client makes any connection to a Google server (via JS or pixel). > you can even implement measurement protocol serverside This is the only way for a site owner to truly get full control over what data you send to GA (while still using GA), but it robs the site visitor of the option to opt out using client-side tools like uMatrix, &c. This is the one small advantage of the rise of client-side tracking: as a visitor I can get a reasonably good overview of which third parties your sending my data to.
- Vinnl 9y ago
  Luckily, if you care about letting the user opt-out, you can respect DoNotTrack: http://donottrack.us/ http://donottrack.us/
ge96 9y ago
Curious how that pixel works... do you have to mouse over it, seems like if it was that case would be a bad approach/design, one pixel versus 1366x768 (at least). Also I wonder that code sample you posted isn't complete (realize why) but I wonder if it has bound JS or how it works technically (all in the source)... do you still have to include a script... I should just Google it haha.
- StavrosK 9y ago
  Google Analytics just allows you to GET a URL to send an event, which that tracking pixel does. Interesting that it actually returns an image, though, I didn't know that.
  - ge96 9y ago
    So that runs once when the page loads? It's not a continuous/real time tracker? Feel free not to respond as I said I can just Google. Thanks though.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - jackgolding 9y ago
      Nope it will fire again after 30 minutes but not continuously
      - ge96 9y ago
        Interesting for my own tracking I was thinking the next logical step might be to use websockets but I'm not sure.
      - StavrosK 9y ago
        I don't think the web pixel will, that just runs on page load, unless you have some fancy JS to do other things (but then you could just call the event directly).

StavrosK 9y ago

That's a very interesting notion, I didn't know you could use a GA pixel. That's a much better alternative to the full-blown JS tracker, thank you.

heheocoenev 9y ago
What about running your own service like piwik?
- StavrosK 9y ago
  That would be best, I tried to run it for me but my needs are too simple for a full-blown solution like that. I'm currently trying to just add a tracking image to my own server so I can count visits.
  - gjjrfcbugxbhf 9y ago
    Server logs?
    - StavrosK 9y ago
      I'm using netlify, which is a global CDN, and doesn't provide logs :/

lucideer 9y ago

> Anonymize/obliterate the IP/geolocation info? Override the IP field to a static value. This might affect the IP you see in the GA dashboard, but it's worth noting that Google still get the user's IP as long as the client makes any connection to a Google server (via JS or pixel). > you can even implement measurement protocol serverside This is the only way for a site owner to truly get full control over what data you send to GA (while still using GA), but it robs the site visitor of the option to opt out using client-side tools like uMatrix, &c. This is the one small advantage of the rise of client-side tracking: as a visitor I can get a reasonably good overview of which third parties your sending my data to.

Vinnl 9y ago
Luckily, if you care about letting the user opt-out, you can respect DoNotTrack: http://donottrack.us/ http://donottrack.us/

ge96 9y ago

Curious how that pixel works... do you have to mouse over it, seems like if it was that case would be a bad approach/design, one pixel versus 1366x768 (at least). Also I wonder that code sample you posted isn't complete (realize why) but I wonder if it has bound JS or how it works technically (all in the source)... do you still have to include a script... I should just Google it haha.

StavrosK 9y ago
Google Analytics just allows you to GET a URL to send an event, which that tracking pixel does. Interesting that it actually returns an image, though, I didn't know that.
- ge96 9y ago
  So that runs once when the page loads? It's not a continuous/real time tracker? Feel free not to respond as I said I can just Google. Thanks though.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - jackgolding 9y ago
    Nope it will fire again after 30 minutes but not continuously
    - ge96 9y ago
      Interesting for my own tracking I was thinking the next logical step might be to use websockets but I'm not sure.
    - StavrosK 9y ago
      I don't think the web pixel will, that just runs on page load, unless you have some fancy JS to do other things (but then you could just call the event directly).