3 ms·

Can we stop pretending that analytics don't explicitly benefit the user? Product Engineering organizations rely on analytics to improve user experiences.

naikrovek 6y ago
Analytics can be done less granularly and still benefit the user. Also, surely not every data point collected is used to benefit the user. For example, Amazon doesn't need to know where I am when I request a definition or translation. If they're concerned about usage, they only need to know how many times I actually used one or both of those features per day, per week, or month. They don't need to know instantly every single time a word is highlighted.
- edanm 6y ago
  > Analytics can be done less granularly and still benefit the user. Also, surely not every data point collected is used to benefit the user. How? For all we know, it isn't granular - it might be aggregated at the server level to hide specific user's actions. But they'd still need to be sending in the data from the device to the server.
  - wongarsu 6y ago
    The device could keep a daily count of interesting actions, and sync that to analytics servers on a daily or weekly basis. That preserves 95% of legitimate use cases while leaking much less private data (like how my reading habits are distributed across the day)
    - edanm 6y ago
      I mean, you're still collecting most of the problematic data. And you might legitimately be interested in what you're leaving out - knowing time of day that people do things is actually important for plenty of use cases.
luckylion 6y ago
When you play an online slot game where you bet money that some numbers will appear on screen, and they use analytics to "improve user experience" (read: engagement, read: you losing more money), is that benefiting you or is it benefiting them?
throwaway_pdp09 6y ago
I'm surprised you'd say that. Out of interest, how does analytics help websites not use blathery, unhelpful text in overly-small fonts, done too-pale to make them unreadable. A lot of UI failings are of this most basic kind.
GekkePrutser 6y ago
They can but they're often much more than that. Also it should really be opt in. Our at least opt out. I hate Amazon looking over my shoulder while reading a book.
- patcul100 6y ago
  That's why I don't use their reading app and use a custom OS.
SamReidHughes 6y ago
The word choice we want here is directly vs. indirectly.

naikrovek 6y ago

Analytics can be done less granularly and still benefit the user. Also, surely not every data point collected is used to benefit the user. For example, Amazon doesn't need to know where I am when I request a definition or translation. If they're concerned about usage, they only need to know how many times I actually used one or both of those features per day, per week, or month. They don't need to know instantly every single time a word is highlighted.

edanm 6y ago
> Analytics can be done less granularly and still benefit the user. Also, surely not every data point collected is used to benefit the user. How? For all we know, it isn't granular - it might be aggregated at the server level to hide specific user's actions. But they'd still need to be sending in the data from the device to the server.
- wongarsu 6y ago
  The device could keep a daily count of interesting actions, and sync that to analytics servers on a daily or weekly basis. That preserves 95% of legitimate use cases while leaking much less private data (like how my reading habits are distributed across the day)
  - edanm 6y ago
    I mean, you're still collecting most of the problematic data. And you might legitimately be interested in what you're leaving out - knowing time of day that people do things is actually important for plenty of use cases.

luckylion 6y ago

When you play an online slot game where you bet money that some numbers will appear on screen, and they use analytics to "improve user experience" (read: engagement, read: you losing more money), is that benefiting you or is it benefiting them?

throwaway_pdp09 6y ago

I'm surprised you'd say that. Out of interest, how does analytics help websites not use blathery, unhelpful text in overly-small fonts, done too-pale to make them unreadable. A lot of UI failings are of this most basic kind.

GekkePrutser 6y ago

They can but they're often much more than that. Also it should really be opt in. Our at least opt out. I hate Amazon looking over my shoulder while reading a book.

patcul100 6y ago
That's why I don't use their reading app and use a custom OS.

SamReidHughes 6y ago

The word choice we want here is directly vs. indirectly.