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Unless the message is misleading I don't understand why you would find it distasteful. As mentioned elsewhere in the thread, a competing product being illegal i

Unless the message is misleading I don't understand why you would find it distasteful. As mentioned elsewhere in the thread, a competing product being illegal is an excellent selling point. Why would you withold that important information from your customers?

Meph504 5y ago
The thing is, that site is misleading, a product that is legal in pretty much the whole world (currently) but against the law in two countries, does not make the product illegal anywhere else, and it seems more likely that the fault would be on the companies implementing it in those countries, not in the global service that is being provided. Then again, even though this is google, I'm not big on localized countries attempt to create laws that dictate the behavior of the internet as a whole, admittedly this is a different issue.
- geysersam 5y ago
  The website does not say Google analytics is illegal everywhere in the world. Only that it might be in parts of Europe. I don't think this is insignificant enough to be considered misleading.
  - Meph504 5y ago
    Its 2 countries, based on the site (which honestly seems low) I would say its pretty insignificant to be anything but an ad.
    - morelisp 5y ago
      It's against the law in many countries (any EU countries, and therefore also likely the UK) but only tested in court in two countries.
mitchdoogle 5y ago
This whole post and the website is totally misleading. It's marketing disguised as a helpful tool.
- geysersam 5y ago
  It's clearly marketing. But marketing can be helpful. If GA does conflict with GDPR it is far from unlikely that more countries in the EU will ban or restrict it. This might be insignificant to an American company using GA but it certainly is not for a company operating in Europe.
  - mitchdoogle 5y ago
    If you can look at the domain, isgoogleanalyticsillegal.com and tell it's marketing, then good for you. I don't think it's very obvious. Posting it as a "Show HN" with its own domain name is purposely deceptive. Most of the "Show HN" posts are from individuals posting their own small projects. Sometimes a company will post one, but at least they link to their own domain. After you click to the article, again there's no indication until you scroll to the bottom (after you've already read or skimmed the site). This is deceitful. Furthermore, it doesn't really follow the spirit of ShowHN, which is supposed to link to a tool that people can try out. You're right that marketing can be helpful, but introducing your company through a bait and switch is a major red flag. This post could've easily been presented honestly: "Show HN: Host your own analytics data to comply with GDPR - posthog.com" or something along those lines. I assume companies that try stuff like this don't even realize the negative feelings such a campaign can engender. They probably see thousands of new visitors to their bogus site and call it a success, all the while not even seeing the thousands of people who saw this deceptive tactic for what it was and have now filed "PostHog" in their mental file cabinet of dishonest companies.
    - geysersam 5y ago
      Fair enough. I see your point. It's not material for ShowHN

Meph504 5y ago

The thing is, that site is misleading, a product that is legal in pretty much the whole world (currently) but against the law in two countries, does not make the product illegal anywhere else, and it seems more likely that the fault would be on the companies implementing it in those countries, not in the global service that is being provided. Then again, even though this is google, I'm not big on localized countries attempt to create laws that dictate the behavior of the internet as a whole, admittedly this is a different issue.

geysersam 5y ago
The website does not say Google analytics is illegal everywhere in the world. Only that it might be in parts of Europe. I don't think this is insignificant enough to be considered misleading.
- Meph504 5y ago
  Its 2 countries, based on the site (which honestly seems low) I would say its pretty insignificant to be anything but an ad.
  - morelisp 5y ago
    It's against the law in many countries (any EU countries, and therefore also likely the UK) but only tested in court in two countries.

mitchdoogle 5y ago

This whole post and the website is totally misleading. It's marketing disguised as a helpful tool.

geysersam 5y ago
It's clearly marketing. But marketing can be helpful. If GA does conflict with GDPR it is far from unlikely that more countries in the EU will ban or restrict it. This might be insignificant to an American company using GA but it certainly is not for a company operating in Europe.
- mitchdoogle 5y ago
  If you can look at the domain, isgoogleanalyticsillegal.com and tell it's marketing, then good for you. I don't think it's very obvious. Posting it as a "Show HN" with its own domain name is purposely deceptive. Most of the "Show HN" posts are from individuals posting their own small projects. Sometimes a company will post one, but at least they link to their own domain. After you click to the article, again there's no indication until you scroll to the bottom (after you've already read or skimmed the site). This is deceitful. Furthermore, it doesn't really follow the spirit of ShowHN, which is supposed to link to a tool that people can try out. You're right that marketing can be helpful, but introducing your company through a bait and switch is a major red flag. This post could've easily been presented honestly: "Show HN: Host your own analytics data to comply with GDPR - posthog.com" or something along those lines. I assume companies that try stuff like this don't even realize the negative feelings such a campaign can engender. They probably see thousands of new visitors to their bogus site and call it a success, all the while not even seeing the thousands of people who saw this deceptive tactic for what it was and have now filed "PostHog" in their mental file cabinet of dishonest companies.
  - geysersam 5y ago
    Fair enough. I see your point. It's not material for ShowHN