Question: for web site metrics, what is a sound, open source, privacy-respecting option?
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@andypiper Sounds like you just want a log analyser. I wish I knew of a good one that published its latest release this century.
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@bodil (and @neil @ConnyDuck) right, that's something that I considered, but I don't think log analytics is a quick option without a lift-and-shift of various elements e.g. blog is Hugo on GH pages, site is Dockerized elsewhere; in both cases I don't currently have access to web server logs. Some of these other tools *claim* they can run w/o cookies...
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That makes sense!
I've seen some say that the don't use cookies, but they do use JavaScript (which is obviously on the user's device), but frankly I suspect that the ePrivacy risk is incredibly low...
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@neil @andypiper @bodil @ConnyDuck I'm reminded of this engineering FAQ from Plausible on server-side logs: https://plausible.io/blog/server-log-analysis#problems-with-server-logs
more on how they count visitors (and GDPR compliance): https://plausible.io/data-policy#how-we-count-unique-users-without-cookies
hash(daily_salt + website_domain + ip_address + user_agent)
Cookieless web analytics and can Google Analytics work without cookies?
Are you confused about Google Analytics and the requirement to show the cookie consent banner to your visitors? Can you have cookie free web analytics?
Plausible Analytics (plausible.io)
local storage opt-out demo CSS: https://plausible.io/docs/excluding-localstorage
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@risottobias @neil @bodil @ConnyDuck I had Plausible in my head initially, and then found others (via EU Alternatives, which I know Plausible is on as well). I shall take a look there too.
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@andypiper @risottobias @neil @ConnyDuck My recommendation would definitely be Plausible, from past experience, when simple log analysis isn't an option.
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For simple statistics I use #GoatCounter. It's simple and #GPDR compatible by default. I also have experience with #Matomo. It's not GPDR compatible by default. You have to change the settings to anonymize data collections.
Matomo is far more advanced than GoatCounter. If you want to extensively see what happens on your website, Matomo is the way to go. Like you can track how many users stay 5 minutes in your website. And also realize which posts they like more, see bounce rate and so on.
Both GoatCounter and Matomo are blocked by anti tracking protections of Firefox.
Edit: If you are not sure which one is the right option for you, you can try hosted GoatCounter and see if you need more data from your visitors.
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@bodil @risottobias @neil @ConnyDuck thanks!
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@farooqkz I had not come across this one, thank you for the information
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@andypiper Another good one is tinylytics. The free plan is limited to 1,000 hits per month, so keep that in mind. Not open source, but built by an active fediverse community member.
I second GoatCounter. Gives you just enough info.
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@andypiper@macaw.social I used SimpleAnalytics in the past. They talk a pretty big game about their privacy.
The privacy-first Google Analytics alternative - Simple Analytics
Simple Analytics is the privacy-first Google Analytics alternative that is 100% GDPR compliant. Give us a try!
(www.simpleanalytics.com)
