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The scourge of web analytics

stavros.io

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Re: The scourge of web analytics

#11

Post by jastingo »

I fully agree with the sentiment (if not the tone) of this post; namely, consumer tracking across the web has run rampant without much consideration of its long-term cost to both consumer privacy and user experience.

However, I do find the blog post's use of Google Analytics and the Facebook like button both indicates and perpetuates the very problem the OP is posting about. The simplicity and convenience to the content producer of using services like Google Analytics and of offering a means of sharing their content through a platform like Facebook clearly still outweighs any objections, moral or otherwise, to the use of those services/platforms.

Re: The scourge of web analytics

#13

Post by JohnTHaller »

You can have a static button for "Share" on Facebook. I'm currently using static image buttons that allow you to Share on Facebook, Tweet on Twitter, Share on Google+, Share on LinkedIn and Share on StumbleUpon (should probably remove that one) on my personal site: http://johnhaller.com/

The code for Share on Facebook is (hoping HN doesn't mangle this):

https://www.facebook.com/" onclick="windowpop('https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=', 500, 500); return false;" style="padding-right:15px;">

I've been using static social buttons for a while now on my personal site as well as PortableApps.com to improve page load speed and user privacy. I've been building web apps for 20 years since the original Active Server Pages 1.0 and 2.0, so there are few people more qualified than me to post this comment :)

Re: The scourge of web analytics

#14

Post by Raphmedia »

StavrosK wrote: post #5
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #2

> You’ll notice my hypocrisy in having social buttons at the bottom of this post...the Facebook button likes the page directly, which can’t be substituted with a simple link, but I encourage you to use Privacy Badger... This nukes the argument. At least for this page alone, trust your users to copy and paste a URL to content they like.

You're saying it doesn't matter if it's as easy as possible for people to share content? EDIT: Reword.

Simply use SocialSharePrivacy http://panzi.github.io/SocialSharePrivacy/

Buttons are all turned off by default and the user can turn them on if they care about them.

See https://www.schneier.com/ 's website for a demo.

Re: The scourge of web analytics

#16

Post by StavrosK »

Raphmedia wrote: post #14
StavrosK wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're saying it doesn't matter if it's as easy as possible for people to share content? EDIT: Reword.

Simply use SocialSharePrivacy http://panzi.github.io/SocialSharePrivacy/ Buttons are all turned off by default and the user can turn them on if they care about them. See https://www.schneier.com/ 's website for a demo.

Great project, thank you! Another alternative that was suggested above (that looks a bit better, in my opinion) is Shariff: https://github.com/heiseonline/shariff

Re: The scourge of web analytics

#17

Post by StavrosK »

JohnTHaller wrote: post #13

You can have a static button for "Share" on Facebook. I'm currently using static image buttons that allow you to Share on Facebook, Tweet on Twitter, Share on Google+, Share on LinkedIn and Share on StumbleUpon (should probably remove that one) on my personal site: http://johnhaller.com/ The code for Share on Facebook is (hoping HN doesn't mangle this): https://www.facebook.com/" onclick="windowpop(' https://www.face…

Thank you, but you forgot to include the "windowpop" function :)

I'd love it if I can replace both the Facebook button and GA on my site with something static, thanks.

EDIT: Done, the URL is:

" rel="nofollow">https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=

Re: The scourge of web analytics

#18

Post by Raphmedia »

StavrosK wrote: post #16
Raphmedia wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Simply use SocialSharePrivacy http://panzi.github.io/SocialSharePrivacy/ Buttons are all turned off by default and the user can turn them on if they care about them. See https://www.schneier.com/ 's website for a demo.

Great project, thank you! Another alternative that was suggested above (that looks a bit better, in my opinion) is Shariff: https://github.com/heiseonline/shariff

They are different in the way that SocialSharePrivacy uses the actual badges while Shariff uses custom elements that link to the social network pages.

Re: The scourge of web analytics

#19

Post by jagthebeetle »

Disclaimer: I'm a bit of a GA power user; although being on the technical side, I'm not really sympathetic towards the marketing uses for analytical data.

There's a tough line to draw between excessive and sufficient instrumentation for a given app, and a business will probably opt for more than less data. I'm not sure that's a moral argument against tools like GA, though.

Especially given one particularly compelling feature of Universal Analytics (GA's latest incarnation): you can definitely water down what you collect. (https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection...)

Want to opt out of collecting advertising info? Say so in the UI. Anonymize/obliterate the IP/geolocation info? Override the IP field to a static value. Override the intrusive collection of User-Agent values? Override the ua parameter. Prevent collection of granular page info? Override the dl, dp, dt fields. Stop collecting referral info? Blank out the dr, cs, cm, cn, and remove UTMs/GCLIDs from the URLs you report.

In fact, you can even implement measurement protocol serverside – GA's ancient forebear, Urchin Analytics, actually began as a server-log parsing utility! (https://urchin.biz/urchin-software-corp-89a1f5292999)

Reduce JavaScript use altogether but keep it clientside? Implement a static GA pixel:
Now, mistrust of a third party with said data is a relevant issue, but slightly different from the technical bones of this piece's argument.

Re: The scourge of web analytics

#20

Post by stavros »

jagthebeetle wrote: post #19

Disclaimer: I'm a bit of a GA power user; although being on the technical side, I'm not really sympathetic towards the marketing uses for analytical data. There's a tough line to draw between excessive and sufficient instrumentation for a given app, and a business will probably opt for more than less data. I'm not sure that's a moral argument against tools like GA, though. Especially given one particularly compelling…

That's a very interesting notion, I didn't know you could use a GA pixel. That's a much better alternative to the full-blown JS tracker, thank you.
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