Regard, analytics made open and transparent | Hacker News Reader

Regard, analytics made open and transparent

withregard.io

19 pointsnanderEire12 comments

I think this is an excellent idea. It lets companies retain the benefits of analytics, but gives users the appropriate power over information concerning them. A couple of questions occurred to me.

Firstly, how much do end-users worry about the transparency of their data? For many users, I get the impression that this is something that they've simply never worried about (although that's somewhat anecdotal!). Do you think that's going to change (or isn't true), or perhaps something that we, as an industry, should be working to change? What's the motivation for a company to adopt this over other, less transparent analytics?

Secondly, I had a look at "My data". At the moment, it's a list of JSON. I'm not sure how transparent this is to non-technical people, nor how transparent it will be when the list contains hundreds or thousands of entries. Do you have any plans to make this more approachable?

Full disclosure, I work with Neil on the project, https://withregard.io/about (Guy on the left)

Your questions are good ones, and ones that we are trying to test ourselves. I think it probably is true that people aren't concerned about what data is collected by them when using apps at the minute, but that is probably because they don't know. As people become more aware of what kind of data is collected and what it is being used for, I think we could see a change in how people view what they are willing to sacrifice for 'free' things. Privacy is becoming more important as people become more aware of what is being disclosed, and I think people behaving appropriately shouldn't be afraid of disclosing exactly what they are collecting and exactly what they are using it for. My colleague Andrew wrote an article for our blog about this: https://withregard.io/blog

The disclosing the data as JSON is the absolute MVP we could do to get started, although you could argue over the 'V'... Our plan is to start speaking with end users and finding out what bits of the data being disclosed is the most important and find ways to visualize, all the time promoting the fact that they own the data.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback, sign up if you want to find out more as we build out the service.

Hi,

I think that people care more about the data collected when using mobile and desktop apps than websites at the moment, but that that will change. I also think that transparent analytics is a more effective way of improving your app. Transparent and anonymous means you can bring the user in to your analysis and ask them directly what the data means. More and more you see privacy policies declaring that the data collected is anonymous so companies can go further with our service and prove it. Some are already doing this, Firefox and Bower for example.

Ideally we will show the user their data in the context of the charts that the developers have setup. As Kevin said the JSON is a quick fix and you are totally correct to point out how inaccessible it might be.

Thanks for the excellent questions.

While interning at Red Gate I had Neil as my supervisor and I can attest to his capability and intelligence. Also, this product really scratches an itch for people like me who hate analytics and value privacy.

edit: I just noticed who's on the team. They're all stellar exº-Red Gate people. I sense great things coming for this project! Good luck, guys! :)

https://withregard.io/about

º – I assume

I believe they're all still Red Gate folk. Specifically, if you take a look at their About page:

> Regard is an open source product built by a team working for Red Gate Ventures in Cambridge, UK.

Only just noticed that it's open source as well. https://github.com/with-regard/

Hi Andrei. Thanks for the kind words. We all work for Red Gate Ventures now.

"We make it easy to anonymously contact users who have used certain features or taken certain routes."

Interesting!

Small note: The back button on the data didn't immediately bring me back to the main page.

Thanks for the feedback. Interesting the anonymous contact is what jumped out at you, we think you can get most of the benefits you get with traditional analytics but do it in a way that keeps the user front and center.

The connection between site owner and visitor has always been mostly one-way, and most ways to connect are usually way too involved. Send an Email? Find the good old guestbook, or become social? Usually not.

Maybe you can make something happen here. Marketing doesn't need to know about it. Just a page where users can read useful things on sites they visit. "Hey we thought our site was blocked in your area, how do you do it?" or "You've delete all your stuff even though you seem to use our site, did you know there's a "undo" functionality" etc.

We took "Show HN" out of the title, because Show HN implies something that exists that people can play with now, and not just an email signup. Please post a Show HN when the software is ready to try out.

Ah ok. I figured since people can actually see their data and the Regard project itself that it was ok to post a Show HN. Thanks for the advice.

It seems like it'll make a good Show HN when it's ready. Good luck!

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