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A comment on Lightweight Alternatives to Google Analytics.

Re:Lightweight Alternatives to Google Analytics by neilsimp1 on Thursday June 18, 2020 @07:51AM (#23562171)
Off topic, but I used to run a website that had Google Analytics. This site and domain are now 100% down and have been for over a year.

I still get monthly emails from Google about the analytics for this website. Apparently it's getting 200-300 visitors per month still. I have replied back to Google vie email about this several times but never heard any reply. I wonder what site they are tracking?

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Re:Lightweight Alternatives to Google Analytics by TomAnthony on Thursday June 18, 2020 @07:58AM (#23562210)
It is quite possible to take a GA tracking code for one site and put it on another site. This has happened to me quite a lot where people have lifted content or copied code from my site. You can see the hostnames in GA (you have to dig for it), which could explain this.
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Re:Lightweight Alternatives to Google Analytics by infinitelurker on Thursday June 18, 2020 @09:57AM (#23563138)
Ghost/spam traffic is a real problem for GA. UA codes are public and can be targeted with spam referrals or simply randomly hit (especially for UA codes that end in -1).

Filtering spam and getting useful data on GA is a never ending job that Google keeps making harder. (re removal of Service Provider / Network Domain [1])

[1]: https://support.google.com/analytics/thread/27808046?hl=en

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Re:Lightweight Alternatives to Google Analytics by TomGullen on Thursday June 18, 2020 @08:03AM (#23562251)
IIRC the measurement protocol can be used to send fake traffic by bad actors.
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