[laurentl]

You don’t have to use GA for your own needs. If you have a traditional web site, you can get a lot done with nginx logs. Things get hairier with an SPA, but it isn’t too complicated to replicate Google Analytics’ “event” features on your own.

I recall someone posting a privacy-friendly analytics tool on show HN a few months back, so you don’t have to roll your own.

The downside is that you lose GA’s insight into who your users are (gender, interests, age group...). But that is some seriously creepy stuff when you stop to think about it.