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Are there more ethical platforms that don't get blocked by default for Firefox users?

chmod775 7y ago
Self-hosted analytics like Matomo for instance. https://github.com/matomo-org/matomo https://github.com/matomo-org/matomo
- Spivak 7y ago
  Which do get blocked since they're still trackers. The protection isn't just against 3rd party trackers. And if you obfuscate your Matomo client script to get around the user's preference for trackers you're not being very ethical.
  - floatboth 7y ago
    Seems like Firefox's built-in protection is mostly about 3rd-party trackers? Even the description for "Tracking content" (the not-obviously-3rd-party category) talks about "external ads, videos, and other content with tracking code from other companies. For example, a website may embed a video from a video platform". And this category is not blocked by default, only in strict mode.
  - thrwn_frthr_awy 7y ago
    > And if you obfuscate your Matomo client script to get around the user's preference for trackers you're not being very ethical. I'm not sure I agree, but you made interesting point and I'm glad you brought it up! Personally, I don't think I would classify that as unethical. Ethics need to be looked at with intent in mind, and if you are comfortable being honest about what you are doing, I _think_ I would be okay with this. Not sure, though–I do have doubt.
  - chmod775 7y ago
    You can run self-hosted analytics without any client side JS. So no. You can't even block those (except if you disallowed any session cookies, but then the site might not work at all if it's login-based). Theoretically you could use the same way to feed third-party analytics too though. Even without cookies and without JS you can still get some data for analytics.
ric2b 7y ago
Server logs
snazz 7y ago
While nowhere near as complete as GA, Cloudflare’s built-in analytics are really useful and require nothing added to the client. The country level geolocation is interesting to look at.
thrwn_frthr_awy 7y ago
Yes! There are many options! Log parsing is an option. There are self hosted options. There are also services like https://simpleanalytics.com/ https://simpleanalytics.com/ (I have not used them or know much about them tbh). Personally, on my recent projects I start without analytics. If I want to measure health or growth, I define my own "metrics" and use sql or logs to generate. I don't need to know what country you are in. I don't need to know what browser you are using. If I do need to know something, I can look at useragents. If it truly is for user benefit and not just my curiosity, I can actually ask my users with a survey.

Self-hosted analytics like Matomo for instance. https://github.com/matomo-org/matomo https://github.com/matomo-org/matomo

Spivak 7y ago
Which do get blocked since they're still trackers. The protection isn't just against 3rd party trackers. And if you obfuscate your Matomo client script to get around the user's preference for trackers you're not being very ethical.
- floatboth 7y ago
  Seems like Firefox's built-in protection is mostly about 3rd-party trackers? Even the description for "Tracking content" (the not-obviously-3rd-party category) talks about "external ads, videos, and other content with tracking code from other companies. For example, a website may embed a video from a video platform". And this category is not blocked by default, only in strict mode.
- thrwn_frthr_awy 7y ago
  > And if you obfuscate your Matomo client script to get around the user's preference for trackers you're not being very ethical. I'm not sure I agree, but you made interesting point and I'm glad you brought it up! Personally, I don't think I would classify that as unethical. Ethics need to be looked at with intent in mind, and if you are comfortable being honest about what you are doing, I _think_ I would be okay with this. Not sure, though–I do have doubt.
- chmod775 7y ago
  You can run self-hosted analytics without any client side JS. So no. You can't even block those (except if you disallowed any session cookies, but then the site might not work at all if it's login-based). Theoretically you could use the same way to feed third-party analytics too though. Even without cookies and without JS you can still get some data for analytics.

ric2b 7y ago

Server logs

snazz 7y ago

While nowhere near as complete as GA, Cloudflare’s built-in analytics are really useful and require nothing added to the client. The country level geolocation is interesting to look at.

thrwn_frthr_awy 7y ago

Yes! There are many options! Log parsing is an option. There are self hosted options. There are also services like https://simpleanalytics.com/ https://simpleanalytics.com/ (I have not used them or know much about them tbh). Personally, on my recent projects I start without analytics. If I want to measure health or growth, I define my own "metrics" and use sql or logs to generate. I don't need to know what country you are in. I don't need to know what browser you are using. If I do need to know something, I can look at useragents. If it truly is for user benefit and not just my curiosity, I can actually ask my users with a survey.