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Mozilla's page talking about privacy has Google analytics enabled

shapeoftheweb.mozilla.org

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Re: Mozilla's page talking about privacy has Google analytics enabled

#41

Post by Silhouette »

threeseed wrote: post #33
vog wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't they simply analyze the log files on their own, without sharing that data with other companies? For example, running some log files offline through AWstats is not that hard, and the AWstats output is quite good for most purposes.

This isn't the 90s. AWstats is not a solution for web analytics. Funnels, Segmentation, Retention, Path Visualisation, Event Tracking. These are basic features used by marketing teams every day. And rolling your own solution with something like Hadoop (which would need for Mozilla sized traffic) is a big undertaking.

Tools like AWStats might not be up to the job, but there are other tools that do offer these kinds of features without sending data to Google. There's no need to roll your own just to do decent analytics without using Google Analytics.

Re: Mozilla's page talking about privacy has Google analytics enabled

#42

Post by sp332 »

threeseed wrote: post #37
Sir_Substance wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such strawman, very shill, wow. The information google gathers will never go away. If google collapses, that data will be slurped up by governments and the private sector alike, and there's absolutely no way for you to predict how it will be used in 40 years time. The optimum strategy is to never let them get an ounce of information about you.

And how is it different if Mozilla were to run their own stack ? Or are you suggesting that they should do no analytics at all.

Data on Mozilla's servers can't be cross-referenced to add to the profiles of visitors and track them across the internet.

Re: Mozilla's page talking about privacy has Google analytics enabled

#43

Post by madez »

threeseed wrote: post #37
Sir_Substance wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such strawman, very shill, wow. The information google gathers will never go away. If google collapses, that data will be slurped up by governments and the private sector alike, and there's absolutely no way for you to predict how it will be used in 40 years time. The optimum strategy is to never let them get an ounce of information about you.

And how is it different if Mozilla were to run their own stack ? Or are you suggesting that they should do no analytics at all.

The point is not to centrally agregate data in the first place because the synergetic effect is too big.

Knowing 24/7 where you are is one thing, and knowing everything you search is another, but if you combine these two, it already becomes very scary.

Google knows so much more. It is a wet dream of spying agencies.

What can we do about it? I think most people don't understand technology enough to see what happens, so education might be the first step.

I personally avoid Google.

Re: Mozilla's page talking about privacy has Google analytics enabled

#44

Post by sp332 »

oceanstone wrote: post #23

Mozilla tried to launch a site to help educate people while tracking engagement? This seems like a much bigger issue than the NSA copying entire datastreams from American internet hubs.

I don't get your comment (even sarcastically). It's not that big, but it's still a problem. People who are trying to avoid being tracked would probably prefer not being tracked. The page is self-defeating.

Re: Mozilla's page talking about privacy has Google analytics enabled

#45

Post by Silhouette »

Programmatic wrote: post #12
userbinator wrote: post #4

I've had GA's domains redirected to 0.0.0.0 in HOSTS ever since I knew of them. It's also another one of these single-page-apps that require JavaScript to display any content at all. I think with such a design they're clearly not targeting the sort of privacy levels that more users on HN than the Internet in general expect.

Check out RequestPolicy sometime if you're concerned about GA and other tracking and went through the trouble to bit bucket it in hosts; it's really nice to be able to set which other sites any given site can contact, and I trust it more than the other curated options like Ghostery etc. since I can see for myself where each site is allowed to go.

Unfortunately the Firefox 38 update broke RequestPolicy.

There are other extensions that do a similar job, including a volunteer effort to continue the original extension, but right now none of them seems quite as neat and reliable as the original.

Re: Mozilla's page talking about privacy has Google analytics enabled

#46

Post by sp332 »

Sir_Substance wrote: post #30
Programmatic wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check out RequestPolicy sometime if you're concerned about GA and other tracking and went through the trouble to bit bucket it in hosts; it's really nice to be able to set which other sites any given site can contact, and I trust it more than the other curated options like Ghostery etc. since I can see for myself where each site is allowed to go.

check out noscript then!

RequestPolicy and other tools like HTTPS Switchboard or even Ghostery let you block all content from certain domains, not just JS. They won't even load a tracking pixel. RP is whitelist-based and it can take some time to enable all the domains you actually use. Ghostery is blacklist-based and targets known tracking domains.

Re: Mozilla's page talking about privacy has Google analytics enabled

#47

Post by cbd1984 »

vdaniuk wrote: post #31
vog wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't they simply analyze the log files on their own, without sharing that data with other companies? For example, running some log files offline through AWstats is not that hard, and the AWstats output is quite good for most purposes.

>AWstats is not that hard, and the AWstats output is quite good for most purposes. You haven't done any serious web analytics at scale, have you?

You're missing the point so comprehensively I have to conclude it's deliberate.

Re: Mozilla's page talking about privacy has Google analytics enabled

#48

Post by cbd1984 »

taspeotis wrote: post #18

Mozilla have a Google Analytics Premium account and they try to minimize the information they share [1]. Our Google Analytics premium account is set to opt-out on all of 3rd party uses of the data and the only people who have access to the anonymous aggregated data is Mozilla Employees. This is not the normal Google Analytics setup that most people use on other websites. Also, to increase privacy we flipped the anony…

Or so they claim.

Is there any way for anyone else to verify that?

Re: Mozilla's page talking about privacy has Google analytics enabled

#49

Post by madez »

belorn wrote: post #26
KraigWalker wrote: post #13

Next time you go to a movie theatre and there's someone standing there keeping count of how many people are going in - because it's there job or something - make sure to complain they're infringing on your right to privacy.

We can test this theory. Go to nearest movie theater with a camera and a clipboard, and start taking pictures and recording people who goes in to watch a movie. Also, stop people and ask what movie they are going to watch, with a noticeable "hmmm" and "really? You are that kind of person?". If anyone ask why you are doing this, say you will be selling this information to highest bidder, as there is always someone int…

Nice summary of Google. But in their defence, you'd have to add something that is given to the surveiled people, because Google does. It lures. Maybe, free cinema would a good analogy. And when you enter that free Google cinema everything about you will be recorded, analyzed, connected and sold to the highest bidder. Creeeeeeepy

Re: Mozilla's page talking about privacy has Google analytics enabled

#50

Post by gorhill »

sp332 wrote: post #46
Sir_Substance wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

check out noscript then!

RequestPolicy and other tools like HTTPS Switchboard or even Ghostery let you block all content from certain domains, not just JS. They won't even load a tracking pixel. RP is whitelist-based and it can take some time to enable all the domains you actually use. Ghostery is blacklist-based and targets known tracking domains.

> other tools like HTTPS Switchboard

I will take this opportunity to remind people that uMatrix is now available for Firefox (works on Nightly): https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/umatrix/

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