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How many users block Google analytics? (2017)

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

#201

Post by going_to_800 »

Nextgrid wrote: post #191
going_to_800 wrote: post #56

It's from 2017 but even more valid today. GA is blocked by most ad blockers thus no company can rely confidently on it anymore. uBlock blocks also a few other tools like MixPanel that helps companies understand their users behavior and how they use their product. I can't believe how ignorant people that say "use server logs" are. They clearly haven't done any online marketing or run an online business, yet they want…

> They clearly haven't done any online marketing or run an online business As far as I'm concerned online marketing is cancer. It acts against me, wastes my time, etc. Marketing should be about presenting your product in the best light possible, and stop there . You shouldn't be allowed to track or waste other people's time to promote your product - being in business is not a right after all. > How do you think a com…

I really hope one day you start your own online business and see how it's actually run.

It's one thing you imagine a business should be run in an utopian world where people respond to surveys and know exactly what they need to solve their issues (Henry Ford said it perfectly "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses") and another thing how it works in real world.

> Yes exactly - companies were in business just fine for over a century and they didn't have analytics, why should it suddenly be required?

This is a very ignorant response so I assume all your answers are the same.

> As far as I'm concerned online marketing is cancer.

I think you meant "advertising"... if yes, in some cases you're right.

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

#202

Post by rapind »

cgriswald wrote: post #48
thanhhaimai wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I turned off my Windows 10 Telemetry, I expressed a clear choice that I'd rather not give my data, and it's fine for my voice to not be heard. I just really don't care about Windows 10 that much. On the other hand, I turned on all the telemetry for OctoPi, Steam, and a bunch of other softwares I care about. I want my voice to be heard for those cases. Just curious, what's so inexcusable about that?

How I use a software is not an indication of how I want to use a software. It’s what I’m doing with the options the software has given. If I’m really lucky, I’ll be like everyone else, and an inefficiency in the software will be spotted and fixed so the software will be slightly easier to use. In practice, I’m just doing workarounds to accomplish things the telemetry won’t explain on its own; and even if other users…

"How I use a software is not an indication of how I want to use a software."

Sure it is. It's not a perfect indicator all the time, but can definitely pinpoint a common workaround users perform due to a lacking or unfriendly interface. It's just a helpful data point though, not a silver bullet.

I'm with you on the trust issues though when 90% of software companies abuse our data. Just another reason why we can't have nice things.

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

#203

Post by lettergram »

microtonal wrote: post #124
lettergram wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, on the one hand I can see that view point — On the other hand, that’s a fairly entitled viewpoint. Users are using infrastructure I finance, to do things on the website(s) I created. If you want privacy from the services youre using, create or host your own. I keep the data secure and don’t give it to 3rd parties. That information is used to fix bugs, improve / build services, etc. I’m not “subverting” privac…

On the other hand, that’s a fairly entitled viewpoint. Users are using infrastructure I finance, to do things on the website(s) I created. If you want privacy from the services youre using, create or host your own. IANAL, but this is not legal under the GDPR. The GDPR requires op-in. Moreover, you cannot make non-anonymous[1] data collection mandatory to use a product, unless it is necessary for the product to functi…

[flagged]

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

#204

Post by notRobot »

going_to_800 wrote: post #180
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.

Unfortunately it's just a matter of time. I have no doubt they will get added to uBlock pretty soon. Most people don't make a difference between tracking anonymously for data aggregation and tracking individual users. Many are paranoid and think that any type of tracking is bad.

It's because it only takes one flip of a switch to go from collecting aggregate data to collecting heavily personalised data.

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

#206

Post by dsr_ »

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…

Serial numbers filed off: an author announced on his newsletter that he was going to turn on the "feature" of his mail service that would automatically unsubscribe anyone who didn't read the newsletter.

It tracked this, of course, by assuming that the mail would be opened in a web browser that would make requests for images.

He cancelled that decision:

"Logged opens for each newsletter are between 53% and 60% -- but an experiment a while back revealed that hundreds of you aren't logged, for various reasons around email security and that one guy who reads everything on a 1980's greenscreen monitor. Clicking of links depends massively on what's in the newsletter, plus the note in the previous sentence, but has gone as high as 41% of readers on one week this year."

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

#207

Post by michaelt »

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.

If I'm a product manager, and I cut a feature based on inaccurate analytics and lose paying customers because of it, blaming the customers ain't going to bring back the money I was making off them.

Chrome's analytics ought to say nobody uses Incognito Mode, but they'd be dumb to remove it.

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

#208

Post by marcosdumay »

stedaniels wrote: post #162
AmericanChopper wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really sounds like you’ve never worked on a product team that actually used analytics tbh. > In practice, I’m just doing workarounds to accomplish things the telemetry won’t explain on its own This is one of the most obvious things people are looking for in analytics. People will always use your product in unpredictable ways to get the whatever functionality it is that they really wanted. This is one of the things…

Analytics driven development is like flying a plane on instruments only with all the windows covered up. I mean, sure, you'll get there, but compared to flying normally you are missing out on so much. Watching individual user sessions from session recordings provides more depth, but you are still missing out on great swathes of information. Analytics and session recordings don't give anything near as much concrete da…

> sure, you'll get there

Hum... On real life you would quickly discover how vulnerable all of your instruments are sensitive to both random and bad-intended interference.

You can apply the same phrase as a metaphor for software.

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

#209

Post by marcosdumay »

l33tman wrote: post #182
twhb wrote: post #28

Note that the 0% for Android is because Google banned ad blockers on the Play Store.

On the Samsung Galaxy you just install Samsung Internet and from within it you can add AdBlock Plus (and most of the other adblockers). They are delivered through Samsung's apk store. It saved the mobile surfing experience for me (was using chrome on the mobile before)..

So, is this why Google keeps complaining about Samsung's bloatware?

Because I don't think the amount of bloat on their phones is even unusual. Yet, Google keeps singling them out.

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

#210

Post by marcosdumay »

going_to_800 wrote: post #201
Nextgrid wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They clearly haven't done any online marketing or run an online business As far as I'm concerned online marketing is cancer. It acts against me, wastes my time, etc. Marketing should be about presenting your product in the best light possible, and stop there . You shouldn't be allowed to track or waste other people's time to promote your product - being in business is not a right after all. > How do you think a com…

I really hope one day you start your own online business and see how it's actually run. It's one thing you imagine a business should be run in an utopian world where people respond to surveys and know exactly what they need to solve their issues (Henry Ford said it perfectly "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses") and another thing how it works in real world. > Yes exactly - comp…

You know, before UX was captured by A/B test fanatics, there was a discipline known as "user testing". It had all kinds of interesting tools, for dealing with all kinds of user distribution and sample size.
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