: Tracking users behaviour - with or without Google Analytics If I understand correctly the following (point & from GA TOS): PRIVACY . You will not (and will not allow any third party to)

@Moriarity557

If you don't require a Google Analytics solution then you could try out Piwik piwik.org/ - It's got similar functionality and is open-source so you can do what you like with it. However, you want to consider the server load involved with hosting your own tracking solution as it can add up if you get a lot of traffic.

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@Angela700

You can write your own event logger.

The best way will be to have a URL structure like...
yoursite.com/record_action?user=abc@gmail.com&page=homepage&clicked_on=top_banner

Then you can store all that data in a database. You can invoke these URL's via JavaScript (say, when a user clicks on a link) or trigger them from the backend on page load.

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@XinRu657

Track the user's IP in a custom variable and then monitor your logs.



Update:

I stand corrected - apparently Google considers IP addresses to be personally-identifiable information in this context.

The "no IP information" convention is inconvenient and disingenuous given that Google must have this information to service requests (and to provide country/region/city and network provider data) - judging by the linked explanation, my guess is that the policy is in place to indemnify Google when people use the service to store information which is or may become regulated.

I suppose you're on your own as Google apparently does not want you to use their service for this purpose - this is a case where you will have to rely upon your own logging utilities.

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