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Ask HN: How to track growth metrics without invading user privacy?

Startups need track growth metrics like MAU, web page visits, most used features etc. But how to do it in a privacy friendly way since there should be some kind of tracking anyway?

muzani 4y ago
Is anonymizing data not good enough? That's what most of these trackers do. Something like Firebase Analytics even refuses to track if there are below a certain number of users.
- DANmode 4y ago
  Sometimes, sometimes not. Deidentification is not always anonymization, and deanonymization is far more trivial than expected in many cases. Those two search terms should get you to the studies/case studies.
  - muzani 4y ago
    It is a question to OP. I guess what I intended to ask is the use case, and whether it fits.
rozenmd 4y ago
Hash the ip address + user agent + year/month, use that as a unique identifier for the month (note that you only need to store the hash)
pabs3 4y ago
Block the metrics system from accessing PII like IP addresses or usernames.
XCSme 4y ago
The most important privacy consideration is who gets to see this data. If you just use it internally and not share it with 3rd parties, then you are already ahead 99% of the businesses in terms of privacy. To keep the data for yourself, it's best to use a self-hosted analytics platform. Most of them also allow for more granular settings, where you can set exactly which data is stored and how.
lq0000 4y ago
I use a service called Plausible for this - they are privacy focused (do not even use cookies) but there are some drawbacks (like not being able to really know MAU since user identifiers reset daily) https://plausible.io/privacy-focused-web-analytics https://plausible.io/privacy-focused-web-analytics
cm2012 4y ago
Regular analytics solutions like Google Analytics and its many competitors pose negligible privacy risks to visitors and clients.
mobilio 4y ago
You can use cookieless tracking.
basquiyacht 4y ago
You can check out Simple Analytics too https://www.simpleanalytics.com/blog/why-simple-analytics-is-a-great-alternative-to-google-analytics https://www.simpleanalytics.com/blog/why-simple-analytics-is...
andreacavagna 4y ago
It depends on what you need to track. For my startup the thing is that open-source developers are sensitive about data and do now want to share them with you. As pointed there: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35358384 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35358384 For the website you can create a cookie cosent or use a privacy focused alternative like https://matomo.org/ https://matomo.org/
ipaddr 4y ago
Track signups and pageviews
gerenuk 4y ago
You can use Usermaven.com. It’s a privacy friendly web analytics and product insights solution.
openplatypus 4y ago
Quite a few options out there https://wideangle.co/blog/best-web-analytics-in-2023 https://wideangle.co/blog/best-web-analytics-in-2023

Startups need track growth metrics like MAU, web page visits, most used features etc. But how to do it in a privacy friendly way since there should be some kind of tracking anyway?

muzani 4y ago

Is anonymizing data not good enough? That's what most of these trackers do. Something like Firebase Analytics even refuses to track if there are below a certain number of users.

DANmode 4y ago
Sometimes, sometimes not. Deidentification is not always anonymization, and deanonymization is far more trivial than expected in many cases. Those two search terms should get you to the studies/case studies.
- muzani 4y ago
  It is a question to OP. I guess what I intended to ask is the use case, and whether it fits.

rozenmd 4y ago

Hash the ip address + user agent + year/month, use that as a unique identifier for the month (note that you only need to store the hash)

pabs3 4y ago

Block the metrics system from accessing PII like IP addresses or usernames.

XCSme 4y ago

The most important privacy consideration is who gets to see this data. If you just use it internally and not share it with 3rd parties, then you are already ahead 99% of the businesses in terms of privacy. To keep the data for yourself, it's best to use a self-hosted analytics platform. Most of them also allow for more granular settings, where you can set exactly which data is stored and how.

lq0000 4y ago

I use a service called Plausible for this - they are privacy focused (do not even use cookies) but there are some drawbacks (like not being able to really know MAU since user identifiers reset daily) https://plausible.io/privacy-focused-web-analytics https://plausible.io/privacy-focused-web-analytics

cm2012 4y ago

Regular analytics solutions like Google Analytics and its many competitors pose negligible privacy risks to visitors and clients.

mobilio 4y ago

You can use cookieless tracking.

basquiyacht 4y ago

You can check out Simple Analytics too https://www.simpleanalytics.com/blog/why-simple-analytics-is-a-great-alternative-to-google-analytics https://www.simpleanalytics.com/blog/why-simple-analytics-is...

andreacavagna 4y ago

It depends on what you need to track. For my startup the thing is that open-source developers are sensitive about data and do now want to share them with you. As pointed there: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35358384 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35358384 For the website you can create a cookie cosent or use a privacy focused alternative like https://matomo.org/ https://matomo.org/

ipaddr 4y ago

Track signups and pageviews

gerenuk 4y ago

You can use Usermaven.com. It’s a privacy friendly web analytics and product insights solution.

openplatypus 4y ago

Quite a few options out there https://wideangle.co/blog/best-web-analytics-in-2023 https://wideangle.co/blog/best-web-analytics-in-2023