Webstats and Privacy

Washington DC - Capitol Hill: United States Capitol

In this post, I talk, briefly, about the 4th Amendment and how the government thinks it has a right to any data you’ve shared with anyone.  In today’s digital age, this doesn’t make any sense.  I put documents on my Amazon Drive, mark them private, and expect they will stay only with me.  Some people do the same with Google Documents or Dropbox.  I send email today instead of writing paper letters. The government thinks they should be able to see that information since you’ve “shared” it with someone (in this case, you’ve shared it with the service provider).

Anyway, I’ve started pulling my information back in to my own hosting.  That way, what is mine is mine; however, I’m sure the government doesn’t see it that way.  Part of that was evaluating webstats.  Currently, I use google analytics; however, I’m thinking about moving away from that.

I’ve used awstats in the past–way in the past when I ran my own website at home.  I started looking at it again, found these instructions, and decided to give it a go.  I’m happy to report that they seem to be working well.  I’ll give it to the end of Jan then look at ditching google analytics.

Oh, yes I know there have been some improvements; however, it is clear the government thinks it should have access to your information instead of assuming it does not.  If you need yet another reason you should fear the government and work to restrict its size and scope here you’ve got it.

Image from wallyg via flickr

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