Comment by stephenr
7 years ago
I don't doubt your intentions, but I simply don't believe that any kind of user analytics as-a-service is ever going to be good enough privacy wise.
Do you know what isn't creepy and privacy invading? Analysing the attributes of the visitors to FranksKebabShop.com, as part of the tooling that runs FranksKebabShop.com.
This could be analysing web server/cache logs. It could be a more active piece of software that operates via JS and reports back to a service running on the same domain.
I know, I know "everything is SaaS now, nobody installs software". Nobody can install it if you don't make it installable. Be part of the solution not part of the problem.
I also don't understand what this javascript library does. "We just show you the essentials: pageviews, referrers, top pages, and screensizes." The information is already there in the server logs, which gives even more accurate numbers. Why would I want a slower website, with less precise tracking? The only new information is screensizes, so I don't see how it's worth any effort to install a library like this.
> No plans to go open source with the backend
That's the main problem I suppose.
Installable doesn't necessarily mean open source.
I personally wouldn't use one that isn't OSS, but plenty of people don't care about that, but do care about privacy, including the privacy of their site visitors.