usage statistics
GoatCounter is an open-source solution to this problem that respects privacy concerns and can be self-hosted. It calculates a hash of a site identifier, the user agent and the IP for each request. That way, unique visitors can be counted without saving any data from which a person could be identified. Unfortunately, this approach is somewhat imprecise since IPs are transient. A user who changes the wireless network also changes their IP address. However, there seems to be no correction for this that does not involve collecting a whole lot more data.
How can I make usage statistics of a website without breaching privacy?
I am running a small static website and would like to see statistics about unique visits. My understanding of popular solutions such as Google Analytics is that they track an excessive amount of user data I am not interested in. I would prefer to only count the number of unique visits and not collect any further data in order not to scare away privacy-conscious users. For the sake of making it easier to comply with the GDPR I would prefer not to share personal data with a third party; I would rather go for a self-hosted solution.
Currently, I do not process any data for which I need user consent. It would be greatly appreciated if a solution would not change that and require me to add a "cookie banner".
