How much Information do you track and how valuable is it *really*?
I've seen a lot of people here talking about their Analytics in their web apps and it got me curious how you perceive Tools like Google Analytics as Founders/Makers but also as consumers.
I hesitate to use such tools as it is something I'm really uncomfortable with as a customer and somehow the idea of only tracking information users willingly and consciously gave me (like signing up for a newsletter or opt-in for more metrics).
Could you image launching without google analytics?
Looking forward to your answers
Trending on Indie Hackers
Hey @yCrab!
I am using google analytics & mixpanel foor my apps mostly. I get the most value out of Mixpanel in the early stages of my apps. I closely watch how my users are using the app, what features they are using & how to retain them.
For websites, Analytics helps be getting more traction/traffic by watching the referrers and country's my users are in. You can better target your ads/marketing channels with this information.
I'm currently working on splitbee.io, an analytics & A/B testing platform that helps me combing the most important features in one easy to use platform.
The first public version should hopefully out in a few weeks!
+1. @tobiaslins is doing it right, you guys.
Use this combination of tools.
cool thanks!
I've sent you a mail :)
Same here, Google analytics sucks so much for event tracking (with custom properties) and funnel visualisation. You need a degree just to understand it. I much prefer Mixpanel.
I am totally sold on the user testing part but still struggle with the idea of monitoring users without their consent. Do you have any plans on tackling such concerns in splitbee?
If a user accepts the ToS & privacy policy on signing up :b
But yes, it's a simple setting to disable all user specific tracking (page views, events).
Cookie notice is still needed because I need to pin a user to a specific version of the a/b test.
Are you launching something soon? Do you want to try splitbee?
I am yet to validate my idea, so it’s probably some time until i care about a/b testing.
Glad to hear you can turn off user specific tracking, will give it a shoutout within my company :)
Heresy incoming.
Your privacy preferences are not those of your users.
My day job, in which I see the opt-in rates for 100 million users, has convinced me of this. I am not at liberty to disclose precise numbers, but they are beyond sufficient to convince me in a personal capacity that most consumer bases are less concerned than you are.
I think this is one of the biggest misconceptions when it comes to analytics on IH. This community loves privacy, which is great. But members of this community also project that preference on to their users and on to consumers in general, which is a logical fallacy.
If you and I launch competing products, and you refuse to use analytics while I do, I assure you that I will crush you in competition.
I see your competition point, that's the one I'm most concerned with when leaving out detailed analytics.
Are you allowed to talk about your users nationalities?
I am German and I see a good amount of people around me caring about their privacy.
It is highly relevant that you mention that you're German.
I can't share any internal data. However, in the public domain, there's this Deloitte report on GDPR:
https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/uk/Documents/risk/deloitte-uk-risk-gdpr-six-months-on.pdf
which mentions this:
"Participants from the Netherlands, Germany and France were found to be most wary [of companies' statements about data protection], which could be attributed to the relatively strict interpretation of the previous Data Protection Directive at a national level before the enforcement of GDPR. German employment laws and the French and Dutch data protection authorities are notorious for being some of the strictest in the world. This appears to have empowered their populations to have a broader understanding of privacy which could naturally have led to more scepticism where it comes to organisations claiming good intentions."
Search "germany" for more details throughout.
Short version: Germans are particularly cautious on matters of data privacy.
Agree 100%. I use Fathom (https://usefathom.com/) for all my websites — it's a privacy–respecting Google Analytics. It gives me pageviews, uniques, referrers, time on page, bounce rate, and that's about it! That's really all I need. I've heard good things about Simple Analytics (https://simpleanalytics.com) too.
Very nice, thanks for the recommendation! I'll give it a closer look.