<ahref="#installation"><strong>Getting started »</strong></a>
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## Motivation
There are a _lot_ of web analytics tools. Unfortunately, most of them come with the following caveats:
* They require handing all of your visitors' info to a third-party company
* They use cookies to track visitors across sessions, so you need to have those annoying cookie notices
* They collect so much personal data that even the NSA is jealous
* They are closed source and/or expensive, often with limited data portability
* They are hard to use
Shynet has **none** of these caveats. You host it yourself, so the data is _yours_. It works without cookies, so you don't need any intrusive cookie notices. It collects just enough data to be useful, but not enough to be creepy. It's open source and _intended_ to be self-hosted. And you may even find the interface easy to use.
> **Shynet** is a portmanteau of "Skynet" and "shy." The idea is that it gives you loads of useful information (Skynet) while also respecting your visitors' privacy (shy).
_Note: These screenshots have been edited to hide sensitive data. The "real" Shynet has a lot more pages and information available, but hopefully this gives you an idea of the general look and feel of the tool._
_Shynet's homepage, where you can see all of your services at a glance._
* **Runs on a single machine** — Because it's so small, Shynet can easily run as a single docker container on a single small VPS.
* **...or across a giant Kubernetes cluster** — For higher traffic installations, Shynet can be deployed with as many parallelized ingress nodes as needed, with Redis caching and separate backend workers for database IO.
* **Built using Django** — Shynet is built using Django, so deploying, updating, and migrating can be done without headaches.
* **Multiple users and sites** — A single Shynet instance can support multiple users, each tracking multiple different sites.
* **JavaScript not required** — It will fallback to using a 1x1 transparent tracking pixel if JavaScript isn't available
* **Lightweight** — The [tracking script](/shynet/analytics/templates/analytics/scripts/page.js) weighs less than a kilobyte (and doesn't look like your typical tracking script)
* **Generally not blocked** — Because you host Shynet yourself, it tends not to be on ad block lists
* **Primary-key integration** — You can easily associate visitors in Shynet with their user accounts on your site (if that's something you want)
* **Collaboration built-in** — Administrators can easily share services with other users, as well
* **Accounts (or not)** — Shynet has a fully featured account management workflow (powered by [Django Allauth](https://github.com/pennersr/django-allauth/)).
Shynet isn't for everyone. It's great for personal projects and small to medium size websites, but hasn't been tested with ultra-high traffic sites. It's also requires a fair amount of technical know-how to deploy and maintain, so if you need a one-click solution, you're best served with other tools.
## Concepts
Shynet is pretty simple, but there are a few key terms you need to know in order to use it effectively:
**Services** are the properties on the web you'd like to track. These generally correspond to websites or single top-level domains. Shynet generates one tracking embed per service.
**Hits** are a single page-load on one of your services.
**Sessions** are a collection of hits (or just one) that are made by the same browser in a short period of time.
**Does Shynet respond to Do Not Track (DNT) signals?** Yes. While there isn't any standardized way to handle DNT requests, Shynet allows you to specify whether you want to collect any data from users with DNT enabled on a per-service basis. (By default, Shynet will _not_ collect any data from users who specify DNT.)
**Is this GDPR compliant?** I think so, but it also depends on how you use it. If you're worried about GDPR, you should talk to a lawyer about your particular data collection practices. I'm not a lawyer. (And this isn't legal advice.)
* **Anomaly detection** (get email alerts when you get a traffic spike or dip)
* **Interactive traffic heatmap** (see where in the world your visitors are coming from)
* **Better collaboration interface** (the current interface is... a draft)
* **Data deletion tool** (easily prune user data by specifying an ID or IP)
* **Differential privacy** (explore and share your data without revealing any personal information)
## In the Wild
These sites use Shynet to monitor usage without violating visitors' privacy: [PolitiTweet](https://polititweet.org), [Miles' personal site](https://miles.land), [a17t](https://a17t.miles.land), [Lensant](https://lensant.com), [WhoAreMyRepresentatives.org](https://whoaremyrepresentatives.org), and more. (Want to add your site to this list? Send a PR.)
## Contributing
Are you interested in contributing to Shynet? Just send a pull request! Maybe once the project matures there will be more detailed contribution guidelines, but for now just send the code this way. Just know that by contributing, you agree to share all of your contributions under the same license as the project (see [LICENSE](LICENSE)).
## License
Shynet is made available under the [Apache License, version 2.0](LICENSE).
