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If you're on WordPress and value your users privacy, do not use Google Analytics. Sure, webmasters get to take advantage of big brothers' trove of fingerprinte

If you're on WordPress and value your users privacy, do not use Google Analytics. Sure, webmasters get to take advantage of big brothers' trove of fingerprinted browsers and fancy metrics, but you're also diming out your users to Google and feeding a beast that's already obese. Google benefits most when you put Google Analytics on your site. Now they can track your users. Webmasters getting analytics out of the deal is the only way Google can sign you up to spy on your traffic. That's why I use the 100% self-hosted WPStatistics plugin on my WordPress.org blog. And it's considerably faster than Google analytics too, because you don't have to make your clients do an extra DNS query and download external tracking scripts from 3rd party (Google) servers.

teej 8y ago
How many folks am I exposing to Google Analytics that weren't before, if I added GA to my blog? I would be shocked if it was anything other than 0.
- nightski 8y ago
  You are giving google more information about those users by letting them know that they visited your site specifically and how engaged with your site they were.
thinkingkong 8y ago
How much faster is "considerably faster" in this case? GA is one of the most universal and most responsive client loaded dependency. Is your site so lightweight that this makes a difference?
- zelon88 8y ago
  Yes. My homepage is 325kb and loads in under 300ms most times. With just 8 locally hosted resources and no CDN.
lmkg 8y ago
Web analyst here, not Google employee although I put bread on the table with GA. I am reasonably confident that Google does not dip into GA data for its own purposes, unless you go out of your way to enable Advertising Features. Google disclaims ownership and controller-ship of the data collected by GA. This is a contract to its users, as well as the cornerstone of Google's plan to not get fined into the mantle of the earth via GDPR. There are valid reasons to avoid Google Analytics, including privacy ones. But the idea that Google uses GA data for profiling is overblown (again, aside from Advertising Features, which establishes a connection between GA data and advertising data). It has plenty of other sources for personal browsing data, and those other sources are more reliable. And since this always comes up: Google gives GA away for free because it's a strategic compliment to online advertising. If people can see how much ROI they get from AdWords, they spend more on AdWords. It's that simple. Google does not need to dip into the GA data in order to see a massive return.
- zelon88 8y ago
  I hear you loud and clear. I'm still not willing to risk it though. I had people calling me crazy when I started complaining-out-loud that Facebook was asking for my phone number "for account recovery reasons." Of course the word of Facebook is sacred! Crazy like a fox [1][2]. 1. https://www.extremetech.com/internet/286897-facebook-uses-2fa-phone-numbers-to-help-other-users-find-you https://www.extremetech.com/internet/286897-facebook-uses-2f... 2. https://bgr.com/2019/03/04/facebook-2fa-phone-numbers-security/ https://bgr.com/2019/03/04/facebook-2fa-phone-numbers-securi...
- JohnFen 8y ago
  > I am reasonably confident that Google does not dip into GA data for its own purposes I'm glad that you're reasonably confident (you're even confident enough that you're willing to expose your users to it without their consent!) I don't share your confidence even a little.
JohnFen 8y ago
> If you're on WordPress and value your users privacy, do not use Google Analytics. Even if you're not on WordPress, do not use GA. GA is toxic to user privacy.

teej 8y ago

How many folks am I exposing to Google Analytics that weren't before, if I added GA to my blog? I would be shocked if it was anything other than 0.

nightski 8y ago
You are giving google more information about those users by letting them know that they visited your site specifically and how engaged with your site they were.

thinkingkong 8y ago

How much faster is "considerably faster" in this case? GA is one of the most universal and most responsive client loaded dependency. Is your site so lightweight that this makes a difference?

zelon88 8y ago
Yes. My homepage is 325kb and loads in under 300ms most times. With just 8 locally hosted resources and no CDN.

lmkg 8y ago

Web analyst here, not Google employee although I put bread on the table with GA. I am reasonably confident that Google does not dip into GA data for its own purposes, unless you go out of your way to enable Advertising Features. Google disclaims ownership and controller-ship of the data collected by GA. This is a contract to its users, as well as the cornerstone of Google's plan to not get fined into the mantle of the earth via GDPR. There are valid reasons to avoid Google Analytics, including privacy ones. But the idea that Google uses GA data for profiling is overblown (again, aside from Advertising Features, which establishes a connection between GA data and advertising data). It has plenty of other sources for personal browsing data, and those other sources are more reliable. And since this always comes up: Google gives GA away for free because it's a strategic compliment to online advertising. If people can see how much ROI they get from AdWords, they spend more on AdWords. It's that simple. Google does not need to dip into the GA data in order to see a massive return.

zelon88 8y ago
I hear you loud and clear. I'm still not willing to risk it though. I had people calling me crazy when I started complaining-out-loud that Facebook was asking for my phone number "for account recovery reasons." Of course the word of Facebook is sacred! Crazy like a fox [1][2]. 1. https://www.extremetech.com/internet/286897-facebook-uses-2fa-phone-numbers-to-help-other-users-find-you https://www.extremetech.com/internet/286897-facebook-uses-2f... 2. https://bgr.com/2019/03/04/facebook-2fa-phone-numbers-security/ https://bgr.com/2019/03/04/facebook-2fa-phone-numbers-securi...
JohnFen 8y ago
> I am reasonably confident that Google does not dip into GA data for its own purposes I'm glad that you're reasonably confident (you're even confident enough that you're willing to expose your users to it without their consent!) I don't share your confidence even a little.

JohnFen 8y ago

> If you're on WordPress and value your users privacy, do not use Google Analytics. Even if you're not on WordPress, do not use GA. GA is toxic to user privacy.