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When I visit a company site and it uses google analytics I know they are either: lazy, ignorant or hostile towards their (potential) clients. This set of possi

When I visit a company site and it uses google analytics I know they are either: lazy, ignorant or hostile towards their (potential) clients. This set of possibilities spans all cases and none is actually a positive signal. Companies (and any entity that has an online presence for that matter) are entitled to know what people are doing in their platform and use any appropriate tool for that purpose. They are not entitled to share that with anyone without the explicit warning and approval of their users. The Web as a digital predation ground where the amoral fleece the ignorami must stop. While (commercial) life is not exactly an ethical showcase, the digital version as it has come to evolve is particularly out of kilt with common norms.

mritchie712 3y ago
How many do you really think are hostile? Your average person at your average company will one day think, "how are people finding out about us?". They do a Google search for how to answer this question for their company and find Google Analytics. This is certainly not hostile. May be slightly ignorant, but can you blame them?
- nologic01 3y ago
  For sure i have come across websites where my eyes rolled ("common guys, i know you are better than this"). But the web has not been transformed from a web of users to a web of data mined "product" without very conscious moral choices by many commercial actors.
dolmen 3y ago
Government web sites also use Google Analytics. Which means we are tracked much beyond our shopping profile.
henham 3y ago
"They are not entitled to share that with anyone without the explicit warning and approval of their users." So using the by law (GDPR) required consent management (cookie banner) where the user has the chance to opt out of any tracking would make them not "lazy, ignorant or hostile" anymore? I think users should have tight control over their own data and what they share but being against all 3rd party ad or analytics vendors would be against digital user acquisition for 99% of websites out there.

mritchie712 3y ago

How many do you really think are hostile? Your average person at your average company will one day think, "how are people finding out about us?". They do a Google search for how to answer this question for their company and find Google Analytics. This is certainly not hostile. May be slightly ignorant, but can you blame them?

nologic01 3y ago
For sure i have come across websites where my eyes rolled ("common guys, i know you are better than this"). But the web has not been transformed from a web of users to a web of data mined "product" without very conscious moral choices by many commercial actors.

dolmen 3y ago

Government web sites also use Google Analytics. Which means we are tracked much beyond our shopping profile.

henham 3y ago

"They are not entitled to share that with anyone without the explicit warning and approval of their users." So using the by law (GDPR) required consent management (cookie banner) where the user has the chance to opt out of any tracking would make them not "lazy, ignorant or hostile" anymore? I think users should have tight control over their own data and what they share but being against all 3rd party ad or analytics vendors would be against digital user acquisition for 99% of websites out there.