Analytics for Nicole Sharp's Website

"Webanalytics" or "website analytics" is the analysis of website visitor data.  Nicole Sharp’s Website and NikkiWiki utilize webanalytics from DreamHost Analog Stats, Cloudflare Analytics, Matomo Analytics, Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, and Yandex Metrica.

data info

Information about the applications used to acquire webanalytics data for Nicole Sharp’s Website and NikkiWiki.

• "DreamHost Knowledge Base: Analog Stats Overview"
• "DreamHost Knowledge Base: Statistics Overview"
• "Cloudflare Web Analytics"
• "Matomo: List of Features"
• "Matomo: Web Analytics User Privacy Protected"
• "Google Analytics Help: Introduction to Analytics"
• "Google Analytics Help: Data Privacy and Security"
• "Microsoft Clarity Documentation"
• "Microsoft Clarity Insights"
• "Yandex Support: How Yandex Metrica Works"
• "Yandex Support: Data Collected by the Yandex Metrica Tag"

data privacy

Data collected for webanalytics on Nicole Sharp’s Website and NikkiWiki cannot be used to personally identify you.

• DreamHost Analog Stats:

  We also use web analytics services to improve the usability of our customer experience. These services may record anonymous data… but we'll never use them to collect personal data from you. We only use this data internally to help us understand and enhance your DreamHost experience. (2025-01-19)

• Cloudflare Analytics:

  Cloudflare Web Analytics does not use any client-side state, such as cookies or local [storage], to collect usage metrics. We also don't 'fingerprint' individuals via their IP [Internet Protocol] address, User Agent string, or any other data for the purpose of displaying analytics. (2025-01-19)

• Matomo Analytics:

  By default, Matomo automatically anonymises the IP address by obscuring the last part. (2025-01-19)

• Google Analytics:

  Our contracts prohibit customers from sending Personally Identifiable Information to Google Analytics. (2025-01-19)

• Microsoft Clarity:

  By default, Clarity automatically detects data likely to contain PII (personally identifiable information) like input fields and numbers. This data is masked on the client and never reaches Clarity servers. (2025-01-19)

• Yandex Metrica:

  To maintain the confidentiality of personal data, the Yandex Metrica Terms of Use prohibit the transmission of identifying information to Yandex Metrica. (2025-01-19)

IP addresses

DreamHost Analog Stats records full (nonanonymized) IP addresses as a necessary part of the server log to keep the site functioning.  The DreamHost Privacy Policy states that they do not share any IP addresses collected and any IP addresses recorded by the server logs are deleted within 30 days.

Google Analytics does not consider full IP addresses to be personally identifiable information.  As a privacy precaution though, recording the full IP addresses of visitors to Nicole Sharp’s Website is either automatically or manually disabled for Cloudflare Analytics, Matomo NikkiAnalytics, Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, and Yandex Metrica.

data rejection

You can opt out of webanalytics data collected by Nicole Sharp’s Website from Matomo NikkiAnalytics, Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, and Yandex Metrica by disabling cookies and/or tracking in your web browser.

DreamHost Analog Stats and Cloudflare Analytics do not use cookies so there is no way to avoid being included in those statistics.

cookie identification

Identification of webcookies for "nicolesharp.net".

• Microsoft Clarity:

  "_clck" and "_clsk"

• Google Analytics (GA):

  "_ga" and "_ga_"

• Matomo (Piwik) NikkiAnalytics:

  "_pk_"

• Yandex Metrica (YM):

  "_ym_"

blocking cookies

To disable cookies for Nicole Sharp’s Website on Microsoft Chromium Edge 132 for Microsoft Windows 11, go to "Settings and More" ([ALT]+[F]) → "Settings" ([G]) → "Cookies and Site Permissions" → "Manage and Delete Cookies and Site Data" → "Block" → "Add" → "[*.]nicolesharp.net" → "Add".  This will return you back to "Cookies and Site Data".  Then go to "See All Cookies and Site Data" → "Search Cookies" → "nicolesharp.net" → "nicolesharp.net" → "Delete Site Data and Permissions for nicolesharp.net".  This should remove any existing cookies and prevent any future cookies from being added.

If you want to block third-party cookies for all sites on Edge for Windows, go to "Settings and More" ([ALT]+[F]) → "Settings" ([G]) → "Cookies and Site Permissions" → "Manage and Delete Cookies and Site Data" → "Block Third-Party Cookies".  A third-party cookie is a cookie for a website that links to an external or third-party server (such as Google, Microsoft, or Yandex).  Cookies for Matomo NikkiAnalytics are not third-party cookies because Matomo is installed locally on the same server as the cookie script (no links to external or third-party servers are used).

tracking prevention

A simpler alternative to blocking cookies is to enable tracking prevention.  On Edge for Windows, go to "Settings and More" ([ALT]+[F]) → "Settings" ([G]) → "Privacy, Search, and Services" → "Privacy" → "Send 'Do Not Track' Requests".

data localization

DreamHost Analog Stats, Cloudflare Analytics, Matomo NikkiAnalytics, Google Analytics, and Microsoft Clarity are all webanalytics applications based in the United States of America (USA).  Yandex Metrica is based in Russia.  No payments, website visitor IP addresses, or website visitor personal data are submitted to Cloudflare, Matomo, Google, Microsoft, or Yandex in exchange for free anonymous webanalytics.

data financing

Only free webanalytics services are used for Nicole Sharp’s Website.  DreamHost Analog Stats are included at no additional charge with a DreamHost Shared Unlimited Website Hosting Plan.

data nonprofit

Nicole Sharp’s Website is a nonprofit site and no profit is earned from collecting webanalytics data.

data purpose

Ultimately having webanalytics is more for you than for me.  I can run the website without using webanalytics but then everything I write or post goes into the void of cyberspace without receiving visitor feedback data on how the content is being accessed and by whom.  Webanalytics gives me necessary statistical data for information such as visitor languages to optimize for translation, visitor screen sizes and resolutions to optimize for visual layout, and visitor operating systems and web browsers to optimize for technical compatibility.

One reason for having multiple webanalytics providers is as a data backup since each analytics system has different quirks.  Visitor data isn't always measured exactly the same between different analytics providers, especially since the data is anonymized to remove IP addresses for privacy.

A better reason for having multiple webanalytics providers is for search engine optimization (SEO).  Webanalytics data acquired by Google Analytics is shared to Google Webmaster (now Google Search Console) to influence page rankings for Google Search.  Likewise the same for Microsoft Clarity data to be shared with Microsoft Bing Webmaster for Microsoft Bing Search and Yandex Metrica data to be shared with Yandex Webmaster for Yandex Search.  I encourage you not to block analytics cookies because by using cookies your anonymous viewing habits can have an impact on how pages show up in search engines.  Popular pages that you and others view frequently will get ranked higher up in search engine results, helping other people to find content that you find relevant or interesting.

data laws

Nicole Sharp’s Website operates under the legal jurisdiction of the State of Maryland, United States of America.  As a nonprofit website that does not acquire any personal data from visitors, Nicole Sharp's Website is compliant with the Maryland Online Data Privacy Act of 2024 (MODPA).

The Maryland Online Data Privacy Act of 2024 defines personal data as any information that is linked or can be reasonably linked to an identified or identifiable consumer[;] …'personal data' does not include: de-identified data….