Analytics on SAFE network

Google Analytics is virtually universal across the modern web. Many businesses and individuals find it extremely valuable for understanding the traffic to their site. Analytics is a really valuable feature for webpages, but one which also has strong implications for privacy.

What do you think analytics will be like on the safe network? Even a simple page counter is a form of analytics. What’s the direction you see this unfolding?

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For the early adopters it will likely e something they want to avoid.

Personally I disable any analytics scripts. Only if the site themselves do the counting is it enabled.

Maybe as the general public start ralising the freedoms that can be had with a network like SAFE they too might start rejecting the notion of being tracked across sites through centralised analytics. OR they might never care.

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If safenet users expect to make decisions on whether their sites are useful they will need to make some measurements. For anyone trying to make a living using the web I see a clearnet portal with full analytics and that portal somehow seamlessly integrated to safenet. For those with a following on social media this is a perfect example. Twitter → Safenet. Facebook → Safenet etc.

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I’m am not sure what analytics will be available to use…maybe user ID and page hits?..it will be interesting to see how this is approached on the network.

I guess if sites make you input data to “register” that would be another option but I do not think anyone will be able to track your browsing history and offer you worthless adverts for things you have already purchased. (what a shame!!) :wink:

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My guess is that if this type of thing exists at all in the future, it will be completely optional / opt-in for each user.

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I’m far from technically informed on this sort of topic. From what I understand, tracking anything other than page views and downloads of any specific file wouldn’t be possible without the user themselves allowing it?

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All it would take is a set of SDs that can be appended to by any APP and the info from participating APPs append info to some of those SDs. Then a “Analytic” APP processes the SDs and produces the results for whomever.

Basically if you allow the APP to write to SDs then they can do a form of “analytics”

In this form we have tracking across APP/safesites and back to the current web.

My guess is that we will require filtering to be able to reject any request to write to those SDs, rather like script/advert blockers can block scripts from (access to) the analytic sites.

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I firmly believe that if a site wants analytics then it should do it for itself only. But for SAFE where the APP is running on the user’s computer then it needs to be limited.

So what can we do, well reviewing APPs will be important. Profiling the writes to the network will be important so filters can be created for those APPs that are needed but have analytic info sent elsewhere, until that is we write an equivalent APP without the tracking.

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I feel that there should be an “app auditor”, basically a chroot / gaol or similar that monitors traffic looking for unusual messages or destinations (esp clearnet). These tools will hopefully come to allow people to be continually secured.

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I was just thinking about this last night, any app could even read our private data (after we authorized it to access), and then it can write the data onto a public SD, moreover, perhaps it can write this SD with other user’s ownership the app’s author controls? in such a case you wouldn’t even be able to know what data was copied over / stolen from you.

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Agreed, but I think the same thing can be said for ‘the internet’ as we know it. And look what happened…

Sorta makes you wonder about the current internet, would people opt in to the kind of tracking they’re currently exposed to? I think the current ‘defaults’ of internet tracking are horrid. Hard to imagine users would opt-in, but then, sometimes marketing can make anything seem like a good idea.


Analytics is interesting to me because business will eventually want this sort of feature. How can the network be designed to ensure the power remains in the hands of the end user? The trade-off between business desires and consumer desires is hard to balance. Perhaps homomorphic encryption may end up having a role?

Very interesting problem to consider. Thanks for the thoughts so far.

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This is a good thought. Especially if it is coupled with some type of financial incentive /SafeCoin? Then I think that’s a real recipe for actual success for limited opt-in analytics on SAFE

Would be a great idea for a little App: SAFEstats or something. One simple app that you authorize once, and it has a set of limited, agreeable things it tracks about your browsing, and then it gives those to compatible websites in exchange for an amount of SafeCoin or something. “AnalyzeIt” “Coin4Clicks” “TrackCash” lol IDK

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See also Local failsafe as a route to confidence in an unstable network? on the dev forum, which considers apps use of a local goldfish bowl and that could also be used for analytics or other app data that the user would want and that potentially free to the user.

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I like this idea, but am conscious that people don’t want to have to micromanage it (similar to the idea of auth fatigue).

Probably there will end up being some ‘filter list as a service’. Project decorum calls it moderation as a service and they totally nailed the concept :thumbsup:

I think this model of ‘using curated lists’ to suit your needs is going to be a very big deal on the safe network, not just for analytics but for the filtering of any content. This has already begun to happen on the internet - most adblockers offer a range of filter lists from EasList.

It means end-users must trust the people providing the list, but the benefit is it’s trivial to modify the filter (or completely change to a different list) if it isn’t filtering to your tastes. Put your money list-choice where your mouth is. Vote with your choice of list. Data (ie the filter list) is power.

I envisage a service offering ‘set theory’ list creation, where users can easily combine different lists using the set operators (union, intersection etc) and perhaps combined with a tagging / metadata system… this would be a very powerful service. A bit more general than analytics… but ‘analytics’ might be one type of list among many others.

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I’m with you on everything else, but I just don’t understand this part, how authorizing a tracking / analytics app one time causes auth fatigue?

Do you mean since it’s an app, you have to authorize it every time you go online? And a list would be more automatic? I can see that, if it’s true.

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I mean users having to allow / disallow / decide all the time per site or per request. This would of course be poor design in some ways (not convenient) but good in others (tightly controlled).

The alternative is to ‘trust’ the people who’ve compiled the filter list. As always, it’s about reaching a suitable compromise between the user experience of control and convenience.

no no no, that’s the whole reason for the app

the app has a limited set of rules of what’s ok to track or not. That’s what you’re agreeing to.

Then it would apply that agreeable, secure set of rules to every site.

That was my idea. might not be perfect, just writing it out

Perhaps something like a public tracking company so the user that allows their data to be shared gets some sort of incentive as well? Dividend payout perhaps, or free use of the data as a whole for whatever business they run? Seems like either of those could work to keep the positive attributes that can come from data analysis while limiting some of the not so good possibilities…

I think the ad model is dead on SAFE which is great because the sponsorship (censorship) world cannot continue as literal enslavement is its only destination. People who are effectively silenced become property. The most important thing the world must do now is remove the money filter on speech. Permanently decemating the political power of money is the most important thing we can do.