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How many users block Google analytics? (2017)

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Re: How many users block Google analytics? (2017)

#131

Post by microtonal »

zuppy wrote: post #92
contravariant wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, at some point we're going to have to address that (internet) communication is a two way street. Until then, your HTML is interpreted by my browser, any resources are going over my network (and only my network if they're 3rd party) and the JavaScript is running on my machine . So I'll be having them obey my rules.

I’m not sure I understand your point. It’s you who requests those resources, nobody pushes that data towards you. Are we debating adblockers? Because that is a different topic than server side log analysis and I agree that we should be picky about what we process (but it’s a thin line, you are using resources from the owner of that service though).

It’s you who requests those resources,

That does not matter, at least in the EU where citizens are protected by the GDPR. Article 6 of the GDPR:

Processing shall be lawful only if and to the extent that at least one of the following applies:

(a) the data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purposes;

Re: How many users block Google analytics? (2017)

#132

Post by RyJones »

jeltz wrote: post #99
RyJones wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm glad you reposted your comment. If you want to read the data behind many of the decisions, read these papers [0]. [0] https://exp-platform.com

That page has 30 papers so it is basically a (hopefully unintentional) "go fuck yourself".

you're right. I was responding to the initial, deleted comment.

Re: How many users block Google analytics? (2017)

#133

Post by petre »

zuppy wrote: post #92
contravariant wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, at some point we're going to have to address that (internet) communication is a two way street. Until then, your HTML is interpreted by my browser, any resources are going over my network (and only my network if they're 3rd party) and the JavaScript is running on my machine . So I'll be having them obey my rules.

I’m not sure I understand your point. It’s you who requests those resources, nobody pushes that data towards you. Are we debating adblockers? Because that is a different topic than server side log analysis and I agree that we should be picky about what we process (but it’s a thin line, you are using resources from the owner of that service though).

So a cryptominer won't bother you then.

Re: How many users block Google analytics? (2017)

#134

Post by saagarjha »

SquareWheel wrote: post #101
saagarjha wrote: post #3

One of the corollaries to this is that if you are basing your decisions on analytics, you are probably under-representing people who block them, who often tend to be a non-representative subset of your users. I have seen multiple projects do things like stop supporting features that their analytics “showed nobody was using” but failed to realize that a significant portion of their (often technical and very vocal) use…

> “if you wanted your voice to be heard, you should have turned on analytics” It's true though. If you want to be recognized, you can't be incognito. That's like refusing to vote and then complaining about politics.

I don't usually get to pick and choose what I share when you run analytics. For example, I might be fine with telling you that I saw a certain article on Hacker News; I however might not be OK with you seeing all the articles I click on.

Re: How many users block Google analytics? (2017)

#135

Post by mariomeissner »

mijustin wrote: post #63

I recently got tired of Google Analytics (for a number of reasons) and switched to Fathom Analytics. Now, Ghostery says I have "zero trackers" on my personal site. Fathom doesn't collect personal info about my visitors. They just show me my aggregate metrics (popular pages, top referrers) which is all I need anyway.

Do the browser And/tracker blockers also block Fathom? If I switch, will I see higher numbers than with Google Analytics?

Re: How many users block Google analytics? (2017)

#136

Post by saagarjha »

nerdbaggy wrote: post #110
userbinator wrote: post #88

How many users who block GA are also going to not be honest about the OS or browser they claim to be? I suspect that number is going to be a much higher percentage than of those who don't block GA... I'd imagine most users who block GA/ads on desktop would also want to on mobile, but can't just because it's so difficult to set up an adblocker on mobile. A HOSTS file or blocking DNS server will easily do that, my whol…

IOS is super easy to block ads. There is an api for Safari so apps can use it. I like to use https://giorgiocalderolla.com/wipr.html

Note that this only works in Safari and in certain contexts inside of apps.

Re: How many users block Google analytics? (2017)

#137

Post by saagarjha »

going_to_800 wrote: post #71
guitarbill wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so that makes spying and pervasive tracking okay? because it makes money? no! businesses have managed without previously. the world won't end without GA.

Google Analytics spies you? Lol. Those tools that you use daily on the browser that saves you time and makes your life easier got to that point because they had a way to learn how they were used. Seems that you don't make a difference between ad related tracking and product based tracking.

> Those tools that you use daily on the browser that saves you time and makes your life easier got to that point because they had a way to learn how they were used.

As far as I am aware, Hacker News has never used Google Analytics.

Re: How many users block Google analytics? (2017)

#138

Post by neiman »

I run a geek-tech blog in Hebrew. I used analytics for a while in the past, but the numbers were completely off. There were posts with almost more comments than visitors based on the analytics.

Took me a while to realize that most of my readers block analytics since they're super privacy-saavy. I shut the tool down, it's useless for some crowds.

Nowadays I also doubt if it's ethical for any crowd.

Re: How many users block Google analytics? (2017)

#139

Post by mikro2nd »

saagarjha wrote: post #87
hinkley wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe we should we whitelisting for analytics. Instead of perpetually trying to identify bots, Pick the 20% of your users who you are pretty sure are actually humans. Nielsen-style, if you will. Maybe two cohorts. The people we're really sure about, and the ones we're pretty sure about. If they diverge, ask why.

> Instead of perpetually trying to identify bots, Pick the 20% of your users who you are pretty sure are actually humans. Note that reCAPTCHA thinks you’re a bot if you block analytics…

Not that that matters to me since I have (re)captcha blocked, too...

Re: How many users block Google analytics? (2017)

#140

Post by tonyedgecombe »

soared wrote: post #122
technion wrote: post #6

What's interesting to me about the number of people who block Google analytics, is the number of people working with those analytics in product management, marketing or SEO, that are apparently unaware of anyone being able to block Google Analytics.

Everyone I know who works in digital marketing (a lot of people) use ad block on their personal devices.

I often wonder whether Page and Brin install an ad blocker.
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