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"Google Analytics is free to use (for up to 10 million hits per month), but it’s only because the company recoups the cost of running the service by using the a

"Google Analytics is free to use (for up to 10 million hits per month), but it’s only because the company recoups the cost of running the service by using the aggregated data to track users for the purpose of showing personalised ads." The above quote is a bit misleading. Google Analytics by default uses first party cookies, the data associated with which isn't used for targeting. For users of Google Analytics who are using Google Advertising products they can also enable the use of the third party double click cookie for remarketing and other advertising targeting use cases. This can also be done without Analytics just using Adword tagging. I strongly disagree with the premise of the quote that Google makes money off of Analytics by gathering data for targeting. Instead, the value proposition for Google is better described here, https://www.quora.com/How-does-Google-make-money-from-Analytics https://www.quora.com/How-does-Google-make-money-from-Analyt... . In a nutshell, Google hopes to show advertisers the value of their advertising buys on Google by attributing conversions on their sites to the correct marketing channel.

throwaway2048 6y ago
If it data isn't used for targeting, how exactly do they deliver you demographic information about your visitors? it seems pretty obvious visitors are absolutely associated with profiles of people.
- longtimegoogler 6y ago
  That's good question. I could be totally wrong. I'll look into this and reply back.
- longtimegoogler 6y ago
  Looks like the answer is here and in agreement with what I said above. https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2799357?hl=en https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2799357?hl=en In short, demographics are from the third party doubleclick cookie and are only available if you enable advertiser features. Whether this enables Google to click a significant amount more of data on these third party cookies is unclear to me. So my original claim could be wrong. I would guess that a significant amount of the information would still be collected via AdWords tagging for conversions or display Ads. There are also Apple and Android device IDs for mobile. I don't know if those are app specific or device specific and if they are only logged if advertiser features are enabled. So the story is a bit murkier than I claimed.
- 9HZZRfNlpR 6y ago
  You have to enable it separately from settings, accept its eula etc. Definetly not enabled by default.
bsdetector 6y ago
> The above quote is a bit misleading. Google Analytics by default uses first party cookies, the data associated with which isn't used for targeting. My understanding is that in Chrome all the GA data from a browsing session is sent to Google over the same HTTP/2 connection, which means activity can be correlated across sites by the unique TCP connection. So they have the motive and the means to do this tracking, are you saying that Google does not do this? Seems like some proof is in order here.
- capableweb 6y ago
  Seems you want proof that something _isn't_ happening, wouldn't it be more appropriate for you to provide proof that something is happening? Innocent until proven guilty and all that yadda yadda
  - bsdetector 6y ago
    Perhaps it's merely coincidental, but Google created this TCP connection tracking data where it wasn't there before or was of much lower fidelity; they made a specific exception for GA to reuse one connection across domains for 6 minutes in HTTP/1 in Chrome and then later had their protocol rubber-stamped that reuses one connection to GA for 30+ minutes in HTTP/2. So yes, I would like to see some proof, for example a specific corporate denial, that this tracking data that they created isn't being used.
    - longtimegoogler 6y ago
      I agree that a public statement would be good because that shows more commitment to the policy as opposed to maybe a temporary state of affairs. My belief is that first part cookie data is currently not used for ad targeting which is why third party cookies are also used and is one of the reasons that the whole impending death of the third party cookie cook have such a big effect on the online advertising industry. Whether that means Google will look for workarounds involving the analytics first party cookie, I don't know.
  - gentleman11 6y ago

throwaway2048 6y ago

If it data isn't used for targeting, how exactly do they deliver you demographic information about your visitors? it seems pretty obvious visitors are absolutely associated with profiles of people.

longtimegoogler 6y ago
That's good question. I could be totally wrong. I'll look into this and reply back.
longtimegoogler 6y ago
Looks like the answer is here and in agreement with what I said above. https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2799357?hl=en https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2799357?hl=en In short, demographics are from the third party doubleclick cookie and are only available if you enable advertiser features. Whether this enables Google to click a significant amount more of data on these third party cookies is unclear to me. So my original claim could be wrong. I would guess that a significant amount of the information would still be collected via AdWords tagging for conversions or display Ads. There are also Apple and Android device IDs for mobile. I don't know if those are app specific or device specific and if they are only logged if advertiser features are enabled. So the story is a bit murkier than I claimed.
9HZZRfNlpR 6y ago
You have to enable it separately from settings, accept its eula etc. Definetly not enabled by default.

bsdetector 6y ago

> The above quote is a bit misleading. Google Analytics by default uses first party cookies, the data associated with which isn't used for targeting. My understanding is that in Chrome all the GA data from a browsing session is sent to Google over the same HTTP/2 connection, which means activity can be correlated across sites by the unique TCP connection. So they have the motive and the means to do this tracking, are you saying that Google does not do this? Seems like some proof is in order here.

capableweb 6y ago
Seems you want proof that something _isn't_ happening, wouldn't it be more appropriate for you to provide proof that something is happening? Innocent until proven guilty and all that yadda yadda
- bsdetector 6y ago
  Perhaps it's merely coincidental, but Google created this TCP connection tracking data where it wasn't there before or was of much lower fidelity; they made a specific exception for GA to reuse one connection across domains for 6 minutes in HTTP/1 in Chrome and then later had their protocol rubber-stamped that reuses one connection to GA for 30+ minutes in HTTP/2. So yes, I would like to see some proof, for example a specific corporate denial, that this tracking data that they created isn't being used.
  - longtimegoogler 6y ago
    I agree that a public statement would be good because that shows more commitment to the policy as opposed to maybe a temporary state of affairs. My belief is that first part cookie data is currently not used for ad targeting which is why third party cookies are also used and is one of the reasons that the whole impending death of the third party cookie cook have such a big effect on the online advertising industry. Whether that means Google will look for workarounds involving the analytics first party cookie, I don't know.
- gentleman11 6y ago