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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. consto+C2[view] [source] 2018-09-19 14:34:03
>>Adriaa+8
This is pretty much exactly what I have been looking for. I recently ditched Google Analytics and all other possible third party resources (except for YouTube which I implemented a click to play system) on my blog (consto.uk).

I just have a quick question. What subset of the javascript implementation does the tracking pixel provide? If all that is missing is screen size, I might just choose that to avoid running third party code. For performance, I combine, minify, and embed all scripts and styles into each page which lets me acheive perfect scores in the Chrome Auditor.

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3. harian+M3[view] [source] 2018-09-19 14:44:27
>>consto+C2
I practice, you can copy the code to your server. You could subscribe to repo updates on https://github.com/simpleanalytics/cdn.simpleanalytics.io and update your code if the changes make sense to you.
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