If you're going to talk about the performance of a production site, use real-user data.
To do that I'd have to implement features that track users, or at least report back to a server with data I could use to track users, and I don't want to do that. As unfortunate as lab-data-only tests are, I'd rather accept those limitations than gather data I don't have any genuine need for. Heck, I'd rather deliver a slightly slower website than do that.
Some websites probably do have a need for super accurate perf metrics, and the devs who build those sites will have to wrestle with the question of what data get to from users for themselves, but I believe we ought to be normalising limiting what data we gather in the real world for everything else.
Ultimately, when I ask myself whether performance is more important than user privacy, I end up answering no.
To do that I'd have to implement features that track users, or at least report back to a server with data I could use to track users, and I don't want to do that. As unfortunate as lab-data-only tests are, I'd rather accept those limitations than gather data I don't have any genuine need for. Heck, I'd rather deliver a slightly slower website than do that.
Some websites probably do have a need for super accurate perf metrics, and the devs who build those sites will have to wrestle with the question of what data get to from users for themselves, but I believe we ought to be normalising limiting what data we gather in the real world for everything else.
Ultimately, when I ask myself whether performance is more important than user privacy, I end up answering no.