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...Can you not track how many people visit your site on the back end?

by vips7L 4y ago

jasonkester 4y ago
Sure. Everybody can. But Google Analytics is a 30 second setup, whereas setting up a log analyzer (or even getting logging going in the first place) is a much bigger hassle. Some of my stuff is on wacky Cloud Function hosting that I wouldn't have the first idea of how to go about logging. Thus, nearly 100% of us just use Analytics. If they had an "evil" checkbox that I could uncheck to stop it doing whatever you're worried it will do, then I'd happily do so. Frankly, I'm not sure what GA could do that would bother anybody. All it does is tell me how many people saw what page and how long they stayed there. It certainly can't tell me anything about you personally.
- ectopod 4y ago
  The problem isn't that you are invading your users' privacy. The problem is that you are allowing Google to.
- Hizonner 4y ago
  On the other hand, if you do it yourself you'll see all the people who block all contact between their browsers and anything they can identify as an "analytics" site. I don't have time to screw around with figuring out what uses third-party cookies, what uses browser fingerprinting, what correlates information across sites, and/or what tracks what how in general, nor to check all the time to see if any of that has changed. I'm just gonna block all of it, because it's not worth the investment of my time to make such distinctions. The most I could get out of it would be slower page loads. Actually, I'm not even bothering to make THAT decision. My ad blocker blocks GA by default, and I'm not going to worry my pretty little head about unblocking anything unless something breaks.
- Schroedingersat 4y ago
  That's a you problem. It doesn't entitle you to help google stalk your users.
- tinus_hn 4y ago
  > Frankly, I'm not sure what GA could do that would bother anybody. It puts tracking cookies on your visitors which means you need a cookie banner. And of course it invades the privacy of your users and slows down your site.
jameshart 4y ago
A lot of modern cloud architecture is concerned with the business of making sure web requests don’t reach your servers if they don’t have to. Edge caching, content distribution networks, browser cache handling. If you do it right, a high proportion of your site visits leave no trace in your logs that they were ever there.
- chrismorgan 4y ago
  No reason why your edge CDN can’t log requests.
  - Thiez 4y ago
    Even if the CDN can't (for whatever reason) one could easily include a tracking pixel on every page that is marked as `Cache-Control: no-cache`, or insert a few lines of JS to do the same.
  - jameshart 4y ago
    Presumably at some sort of additional cost, though. So then we’re into the business of weighing up whether to spend money on obtaining raw logs or purchasing the CDN’s own traffic analytics add on… or just going with a third party. This stuff isn’t just built in.
philsawa 4y ago
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...Can you not track how many people visit your site on the back end?

by vips7L 4y ago

...Can you not track how many people visit your site on the back end?

Sure. Everybody can. But Google Analytics is a 30 second setup, whereas setting up a log analyzer (or even getting logging going in the first place) is a much bigger hassle. Some of my stuff is on wacky Cloud Function hosting that I wouldn't have the first idea of how to go about logging. Thus, nearly 100% of us just use Analytics. If they had an "evil" checkbox that I could uncheck to stop it doing whatever you're worried it will do, then I'd happily do so. Frankly, I'm not sure what GA could do that would bother anybody. All it does is tell me how many people saw what page and how long they stayed there. It certainly can't tell me anything about you personally.

ectopod 4y ago
The problem isn't that you are invading your users' privacy. The problem is that you are allowing Google to.
Hizonner 4y ago
On the other hand, if you do it yourself you'll see all the people who block all contact between their browsers and anything they can identify as an "analytics" site. I don't have time to screw around with figuring out what uses third-party cookies, what uses browser fingerprinting, what correlates information across sites, and/or what tracks what how in general, nor to check all the time to see if any of that has changed. I'm just gonna block all of it, because it's not worth the investment of my time to make such distinctions. The most I could get out of it would be slower page loads. Actually, I'm not even bothering to make THAT decision. My ad blocker blocks GA by default, and I'm not going to worry my pretty little head about unblocking anything unless something breaks.
Schroedingersat 4y ago
That's a you problem. It doesn't entitle you to help google stalk your users.
tinus_hn 4y ago
> Frankly, I'm not sure what GA could do that would bother anybody. It puts tracking cookies on your visitors which means you need a cookie banner. And of course it invades the privacy of your users and slows down your site.

jameshart 4y ago

A lot of modern cloud architecture is concerned with the business of making sure web requests don’t reach your servers if they don’t have to. Edge caching, content distribution networks, browser cache handling. If you do it right, a high proportion of your site visits leave no trace in your logs that they were ever there.

chrismorgan 4y ago
No reason why your edge CDN can’t log requests.
- Thiez 4y ago
  Even if the CDN can't (for whatever reason) one could easily include a tracking pixel on every page that is marked as `Cache-Control: no-cache`, or insert a few lines of JS to do the same.
- jameshart 4y ago
  Presumably at some sort of additional cost, though. So then we’re into the business of weighing up whether to spend money on obtaining raw logs or purchasing the CDN’s own traffic analytics add on… or just going with a third party. This stuff isn’t just built in.

philsawa 4y ago

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