13% of my website visitors block Google Analytics • Hacker News Board

Re: 13% of my website visitors block Google Analytics

#11

Post by chrismorgan » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 9:21 AM UTC

Simon_says wrote: post #3

> How I implemented my study > I installed Google Analytics alongside Plausible Analytics on three sites in June. All he measured was people who load Plausible Analytics and not Google Analytics. Anybody running noscript (like me) wouldn't have shown up here at all.

Even when I run JavaScript (I don’t by default), uBlock Origin blocks https://plausible.io/js/plausible.js through Peter Lowe’s Ad and tracking server list. Not sure if that’s one that’s enabled by default or if it’s one I’ve enabled.

So yeah, I would expect the true Google Analytics blockage figure to be markedly higher than the 13% reported here.

Re: 13% of my website visitors block Google Analytics

#12

Post by lrem » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 9:21 AM UTC

Simon_says wrote: post #3

> How I implemented my study > I installed Google Analytics alongside Plausible Analytics on three sites in June. All he measured was people who load Plausible Analytics and not Google Analytics. Anybody running noscript (like me) wouldn't have shown up here at all.

How hard is it these days to tell humans from bots in server logs?

Re: 13% of my website visitors block Google Analytics

#13

Post by michael-ax » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 9:22 AM UTC

says: https://markosaric.com/speed-up-wordpress/ >> Steps I took to make my site speedy and green >>> To not add much additional footprint, I’ve decided not to use Google Analytics, ....

.. this is too weird for me.

Re: 13% of my website visitors block Google Analytics

#14

Post by Akronymus » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 9:26 AM UTC

chrismorgan wrote: post #11

Simon_says wrote: post #3

> How I implemented my study > I installed Google Analytics alongside Plausible Analytics on three sites in June. All he measured was people who load Plausible Analytics and not Google Analytics. Anybody running noscript (like me) wouldn't have shown up here at all.

Even when I run JavaScript (I don’t by default), uBlock Origin blocks https://plausible.io/js/plausible.js through Peter Lowe’s Ad and tracking server list . Not sure if that’s one that’s enabled by default or if it’s one I’ve enabled. So yeah, I would expect the true Google Analytics blockage figure to be markedly higher than the 13% reported here.

The peter lowe list is enabled by default.

Re: 13% of my website visitors block Google Analytics

#15

Post by shreyasminocha » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 9:26 AM UTC

Pete-Codes wrote: post #5

I've used Simple Analytics since day one of my site. Thoroughly recommended for privacy. Fathom Analytics is another option.

OP works on Plausible.io

Re: 13% of my website visitors block Google Analytics

#16

Post by K0nserv » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 9:27 AM UTC

TomGullen wrote: post #10

Better way perhaps we do is compare Cloudflare visitors to GA visitors over same time frame. This method doesn’t measure people with JS disabled. I think it’s important to remember also with large numbers a percent of users blocking GA is likely not a big deal - you just want something generally accurate. Switching analytics providers to get more data isn’t in itself a reason to switch. If people care about payload s…

I haven't found an answer to this elsewhere and I've also asked Cloudflare but it's unclear if Cloudflare's analytics filters known bots in any way which AFAIK GA does.

Re: 13% of my website visitors block Google Analytics

#17

Post by throwayws » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 9:29 AM UTC

cm2187 wrote: post #8

I am not surprised by the low iOS numbers, adblockers are a pain to setup and I haven’t found one as good as ublock origin. Would anyone have recommendation for a good iOS adblocker?

1Blocker works fine here. One filter (Ads) is for free.

Re: 13% of my website visitors block Google Analytics

#18

Post by jasonlingx » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 9:29 AM UTC

cm2187 wrote: post #8

I am not surprised by the low iOS numbers, adblockers are a pain to setup and I haven’t found one as good as ublock origin. Would anyone have recommendation for a good iOS adblocker?

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that iOS has “content blockers” built in. If you google “iOS ad blocker”, AdGuard should be the first result, just install the app and flip a few switches in settings to enable it. I still haven’t actually used ad blockers yet on my other browsers, only iOS Safari.

Re: 13% of my website visitors block Google Analytics

#19

Post by polytely » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 9:29 AM UTC

Simon_says wrote: post #3

> How I implemented my study > I installed Google Analytics alongside Plausible Analytics on three sites in June. All he measured was people who load Plausible Analytics and not Google Analytics. Anybody running noscript (like me) wouldn't have shown up here at all.

Also doesn't count anyone who uses uMatrix I think. Highly recommend it for technological literate people. It's a bit more work than uBlock but you gain a lot of control on what you allow to load.

Re: 13% of my website visitors block Google Analytics

#20

Post by __alexs » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 9:30 AM UTC

Slightly off topic: Plausible claim that their cookieless tracking is GDPR compliant but this seems a bit shaky to me. Unless they are doing something that isn't specified in their docs their fingerprinting seems reversible which would make their user identifiers PII like any session ID you'd store in a cookie.

AIUI the GDPR doesn't particularly care about cookies, it cares about you tracking people without their consent. If you have a cookieless way of tracking individual people that is as accurate as cookies then clearly you still need consent?