Why we removed Google Analytics, what we replaced it with, and how it benefits our users

At Instructron, we believe that powerful educational tools shouldn’t come at the expense of privacy. Our goal is to support teachers and students through a platform that is not only effective, but also trustworthy. That’s why we’ve made a significant change to how we collect and manage product analytics.

We’ve removed all traces of third-party tracking and committed even more deeply to a privacy-first approach designed to align with the values of the educators we serve.

Why We Removed Google Analytics

Most sites rely on third-party analytics platforms like Google Analytics or Hotjar. While these tools can offer useful insights, they often come with trade-offs that don’t align with our standards:

Track users across unrelated websites
Collect and store more data than needed
Rely on servers outside the user’s country
Require intrusive cookie banners and complex consent forms

These practices erode user trust, especially in education, where privacy should be a baseline, not a premium feature.

What We Replaced It With

1. Self-Hosted Analytics

We migrated to a fully self-hosted installation of Umami, an open-source analytics platform that allows us to:

Keep 100% of analytics traffic on our own servers
Eliminate reliance on third-party tracking infrastructure
Remove all unnecessary cookies
Maintain control over exactly what data is collected and why

We have removed Google Analytics from our codebase entirely: all scripts, configuration files, and tracking IDs are gone.

2. Anonymous and Purpose-Built Internal Event Tracking

Our setup does not track or store identifiable user information. No names, emails, and IP addresses from any event data.

For key product metrics, we built our own minimal tracking system to collect anonymized usage data. This allows us to improve the product responsibly, without compromising user privacy.

Here’s a simplified version of what this looks like behind the scenes (for anyone curious):

export const trackEvent = async (eventName, properties?) => {
  if (typeof window !== "undefined" && window.umami) {
    window.umami.track(eventName, properties);
  }

  if (eventName.startsWith("core_")) {
    await fetch("/api/internal/collect-metrics", {
      method: "POST",
      headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
      body: JSON.stringify({
        event: eventName,
        anonymousData: properties
      }),
    });
  }
};

What This Means for Instructron Users

For teachers, students, and administrators, this change provides real benefits:

No more cookie consent banners
Faster page load times without third-party scripts
Greater confidence that your data stays private
The same reliable product experience, now with even greater respect for user trust

Internal performance testing showed page load time improvements of up to 30 percent on some pages simply by removing Google’s tracking scripts.

A Different Standard for EdTech

We believe educational technology companies have a responsibility to lead when it comes to user privacy. From the beginning, Instructron has been developed with teachers in mind - and that includes how we handle their data.

This shift to privacy-first analytics is part of a broader commitment to student protection, teacher trust, and long-term transparency in our product development.

What’s Next

We’ll continue monitoring and improving how we track product usage—always putting privacy first. Our team is currently:

Auditing any code that interacts with user data
Reviewing all aspects of our infrastructure to strengthen alignment with our standards
Documenting what we do along the way to remain transparent

We’re committed to doing the right thing, even when it takes more effort. That’s the standard we believe edtech should meet.

Learn More

Curious about how we handle data, or want to see the full details?

Visit our Trust & Privacy Center, or get in touch if you have questions about our analytics implementation. We’re always happy to connect with educators, developers, and administrators interested in building tools the right way.

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