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[return to "Show HN: I made a privacy-first minimalist Google Analytics"]
1. Adriaa+8[view] [source] 2018-09-19 14:13:28
>>Adriaa+(OP)
Creator here. As a developer, I install analytics for clients, but I never feel comfortable installing Google Analytics because Google creates profiles for their visitors, and uses their information for apps (like AdWords). As we all know, big corporations unnecessarily track users without their consent. I want to change that.

So I built Simple Analytics. To ensure that it's fast, secure, and stable, I built it entirely using languages that I'm very familiar with. The backend is plain Node.js without any framework, the database is PostgreSQL, and the frontend is written in plain JavaScript.

I learned a lot while coding, like sending requests as JSON requires an extra (pre-flight) request, so in my script I use the "text/plain" content type, which does not require an extra request. The script is publicly available (https://github.com/simpleanalytics/cdn.simpleanalytics.io/bl...). It works out of the box with modern frontend frameworks by overwriting the "history.pushState"-function.

I am transparent about what I collect (https://simpleanalytics.io/what-we-collect) so please let me know if you have any questions. My analytics tool is just the start for what I want to achieve in the non-tracking movement.

We can be more valuable without exploiting user data.

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2. cutety+v1[view] [source] 2018-09-19 14:25:26
>>Adriaa+8
Just a heads up, HN comments only use a (I think) small subset of Markdown for formatting, but your link will work as is without having to wrap it in [] and adding the ().

https://github.com/simpleanalytics/cdn.simpleanalytics.io/bl...

https://simpleanalytics.io/what-we-collect

Anyway, cool project! I've always felt the same about using GA given I actually like to pretend I have some sort of privacy these days, and always have an adblocker on, so I hated setting it up for people. Definitely will be keeping an eye on this the next time someone asks me to setup GA.

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