Analytics for Electron apps and browser extensions

Apps and extensions don't have normal https:// page URLs, so the browser snippet isn't the right fit. Send hits to the public collection endpoint yourself, using virtual URLs on your site's domain.

The collection endpoint#

POST https://privatusstats.com/api/event with a text/plain body (no CORS preflight, no credentials):

function privatusHit(type, path, extra = {}) {
  return fetch('https://privatusstats.com/api/event', {
    method: 'POST',
    keepalive: true,
    credentials: 'omit',
    headers: { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain' },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      s: 'pa_YOURSITEID',
      t: type,                              // 'pageview' or 'event'
      u: 'https://app.example.com' + path,  // a hostname that's one of your site's domains
      l: navigator.language,
      w: typeof screen === 'undefined' ? undefined : screen.width, // no screen in a service worker
      ...extra,                             // n: event name, p: properties
    }),
  })
}

privatusHit('pageview', '/settings')
privatusHit('event', '/settings', { n: 'Theme changed', p: { theme: 'dark' } })

The short keys are documented in What the tracker sends.

The endpoint always responds with 202, whether the hit was stored or dropped. A hit is dropped when u is not an http:// or https:// URL, when its hostname is not one of the site's domains (or a subdomain of one), or when the request looks like a bot.

Electron#

• Send hits from the renderer (so the request carries a normal browser User-Agent), for example on each route change of your app's router.
• Electron's default User-Agent contains Electron/…, which the bot filter treats as automation. Set a clean User-Agent for your window's session, for example with session.defaultSession.setUserAgent() removing the Electron/x.y.z token, or hits are dropped as bots while the site's bot filtering is on.
• Add app.example.com (or whatever host you use in u) to the site's domains.

Browser extensions#

• Send hits from your extension's pages (popup, options page) or background service worker. Add https://privatusstats.com/* to host_permissions in manifest.json for Manifest V3.
• Describe the analytics in your store listing and privacy disclosures. Chrome Web Store and Firefox Add-ons require it even for anonymous usage data.
• Consider an in-extension opt-out that simply stops calling privatusHit().

Privacy notes#

Nothing here creates an identifier: visits are built exactly as for websites (a daily key from the IP and User-Agent, which is never stored). Don't put user ids, emails or file names in paths or properties.