You're Losing HALF Of Your Data 

I think this is ironic that power users (who use ad blockers) are being taught how to circumvent trackers from being blocked.

I only started watching your RU-vid videos two days ago. I've been binging your content, and I've learned so much in such a short time. I had never thought about this problem before. I also loved your video on Databases. I recently started using MongoDB for my new project, and realized the I have never had a use-case for my projects or client projects where I don't need relationships. You saved me a lot of time migrating... Thanks! :)

Funny you mention analytics. We are asked to implement audit logs for user actions for the application we are building (essentially a very customized semi-subset of what google analytics could potentially offer) - and it's a very interesting mini-project both backend-wise since we have to juggle logging endpoints in conjunction with JWTs along with any infra hindrances we will enjoy and whatnot plus all the frontend necessary work that of course must be implemented in a generic pluggable way in our pages.

Anyone interested in tracking options and how issues such as ad blockers are currently handled by Google, for example, should take a look at the server-side configuration/option of the Google Tag Manager or look at the concept of server-side tracking in general. Analytics and ad-driven companies have of course been aware for some time that analytics data is becoming increasingly imprecise, which cannot be (fully) addressed by predictive modeling. Channeling the data stream through their own sites helps companies to bypass anti-tracking mechanisms, of course, but it also makes it more opaque for the user where which data ends up. In addition, the user has to trust website operators more that the consent is respected. Recently, Firefox took another step and gave users the option to automatically remove known tracking URL parameters (like the fbclid). Facebook is already experimenting with encoding tracking parameters directly in the URL route to do away with parameters. I think that this back and forth will mainly lead to the fact that only large or tech savvy companies can successfully implement analytics concepts and users will ultimately understand less and less on the technical level how their data is used and processed.

What analytics service would you recommend? What do you usually track besides defaults like page views and referrer stuff?

I'd love to learn more about self-hosting analytics. Specifically, I'd love to see some implementation of server-side analytics where events are recorded to something like Segment.

I love your channel so much. You help me learn new things all the time that never would've been on my radar otherwise and I'm very grateful for that.

Are there not any solutions that you can host within your own site so the data is recorded and stays within your own site?

Nice video. Is there any analytics stack out there not for marketing but just to understand user behavior that just logs events to your log server but has a nice UI so the product people can define event params and also make their nice reports without my dev help?

Looking forward for new videos on analytics. Thanks, Theo!

Love you Theo definitely more about analytics

what do you think of Matamoto? you can implement on your own server as well ?

I would kill for a Theo deep dive into analytics and telemetry. I know in your twitch pre-rant you said the setup portion was more beginner/new dev focused, but I have found so many teams that just do what they have seen other developers do without deeply understanding what’s happening and what to record. I also think it ties into the T3 community goal to be a community of builders, not just devs. People going in alone and building there own thing could really use a “Theo’s guide to ironclad analytics”.

I wonder why there aren't analytics services that utilise edge computing. Server side style analytics for distributed sites would be cool right?

How do you check that subdomain is blocked by the Ad Blocker? Do you have a quick way to check it?

Very informative video thank you!

analytics is important. but if users don't want to give you data that should be respected

Would making you're own analytics without tools be possible?

great video , please talk about analytics more. 👍👍👍

this helped me so much...its frustrating to trace why analytics is not showing up when I was using an ad blocker

Hey Theo, amazing content. I've been working with google analytics and i had no idea i was losing this much info. thank you for the new strats !

Yes please. I really want to know how to do performance and usage analytics.

It's amazing to have somebody building a product nowadays who is willing to share their experience and insights along the journey. Thank you so much Theo, this is infinitely appreciated!

It's worth noting a simple proxy solution (like your first example where a local endpoint proxies to GA), will likely lose most geo data.

As a developer, i refuse to implement those invasive trackers. If my user doesn't want to share his data, i respect that. Full stop.

Hi Theo, I am not really interested in analytics, but I must say that you covered a must to know topic about analytics and how to get 100% of your analytics, so please just continue to make content of this quality since I am learning a lot from you. The best video to me for now is the one about database, you changed my vision, and I am really grateful to you for that.

Thanks for review

What do you think of other ways to bypass adblocks like proxying your analytics data ? It's commonly done using tools like server-side google tag manager whre you setup your own server with your own domain to collect all the analytics http request than you forward them to the third party services

Thanks a lot for this

im building a service that offers a new approach to analytics, id love a video breaking down all your grievances with ga or other services, as well as things you find useful

what about datadog?

Do you use dependency injection framework in typescript like InversifyJS? I liked the principle in C#. Now doing it in python and it has been fantastic. What's your take on the topic?

Just use Logs

Segment & server-side tracking plx ^^

Isn't the Matomo free plan self hosted?

More on analytic

More analytics please!

I use Swetrix, also light and privacy oriented analytics.

This video needs more views. Ngl analytics cheat sheet right here.

These are the same way that black hats use to execute malicious code... At point do you think "are we the baddies"?

I'm self hosting Plausible Analytics on GCP free tier

This is unbelievable , now I know why I have so little users

Any analytics options should be opt in IMO. Isn't that a privacy invasion otherwise?

I find this highly questionable. By actively blocking e.g. Google Analytics the user has already communicated his intent to NOT give them any information. You circumventing that without their consent is just a disservice to your customers. Furthermore: if this prevents users who have opted out of Googles Tracking from actually not being tracked this should be illegal in Europe afaik.

Def need more analytics content. How and what to track. Tips and tricks

I already use plausible haha

The advice of this video is very unethical, and the main reason why I hate silicone valley dataphile types is how blind they are to NO means NO. If a user is actively blocking analytics, that shows that they intend to not share this information. You explicitly do not have there consent to collect this information. Plus if you just want page view counts, why can't you just count the amount of request to a page, without loading unethical code onto the users computer.

Feel like Adblockers should be illegal (on a purely moral level)... Even at the most basic level, for ad-subsidized services, blocking the ads is theft of service. People should either pay to not see ads or pay by seeing ads.

This whole space is just getting more adversarial day by day. This is just subverting the users' wishes to not have their information collected, no?

More more of this

first

For everyone getting hyper sensitive about this video and “tracking” users. I bet you have no clue what the web or the internet would be like if we don’t have any analytics and feedback. Then you’d naturally start complaining again about how crappy the product is. Sigh 🤦‍♂️

w.t.f is happening ? these days I am just thinking about something and 5 minutes later pops up in my suggestions list .