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Comment by judge2020 | Hacker News Reader

judge2020·

The big kicker here is that they'll be providing these to those who don't use CF by adding JS to the page, almost exactly like Google Analytics (although I imagine you wouldn't get the accuracy of also having server/access log-based analytics due to ad blockers) by signing up on this page:

https://www.cloudflare.com/web-analytics/

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offer something that is privacy-first analytics ought to be a pixel embed. Why would I trust an external js source that could change introduce security risk?

I'm not too familiar with the technique; doesn't pixel tracking still require JS to derive more info from the visitor beyond just their IP address?

The GET request will generally also include the User Agent, and any forwarded headers. This can include cookies.

Yes but that doesn't include things like screen size/ratio or some other key metrics that usability people rely on.

I can see the need for JS but it would be nice if they offered a pixel only version with less granularity for those of us who want the data but without JS.

Those things violate the privacy-first principles, do they not? Things like screen size/ratio are very strong fingerprints that can be used to de-anonymise users with ease.

Exactly! I think most people don't realize the problem of browsing web with JS turned on.

Their concept of "visit" hinges on seeing the Referer for the original request.

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