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<title>Removing Google Analytics from this blog</title>
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<h1 class="article-title">Removing Google Analytics from this blog</h1>
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<time class="article-timestamp" datetime="2015-09-25T12:30:25-07:00">September 25, 2015</time>
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<p>There was a lengthy discussion about Peace and ad-blocking in <a href="http://atp.fm/episodes/136">Accidental Tech Podcast Episode 136</a>. There were many lessons to learn from the story; as a side effect, it also made me reconsider Google Analytics on this blog.</p>
<p>I've been a user of ad-blocking for years and have little to no moral burden.<a class="footnoteRef" href="#fn1" id="fnref1"><sup>1</sup></a><a class="footnoteRef" href="#fn2" id="fnref2"><sup>2</sup></a> I do hate being tracked online, even by Google (to whom I entrust so much of my personal information), although it's certainly better (I believe) than the host of shadier ad networks out there. Given this, why should I force something even I hate down my visitors' throats? Google Analytics is nice at telling me how many page views I got and where they came from, and I don't earn any money from it so I shouldn't feel guilty, but (1) it does install a tracker, and (2) I care very little about traffic anyway.</p>
<p>At this point the decision is pretty clear. I'm simply removing Google Analytics from this blog. This makes the blog entirely cookie-free and JS-free (except for the very occasional JS embed).</p>
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<li id="fn1"><p>I do try to support websites I frequent, e.g., through <a href="https://arstechnica.com/subscriptions/">Ars Premier</a>.<a class="footnotes-backlink" href="#fnref1">↩︎</a></p></li>
<li id="fn2"><p>Although it's easy to be a user of ad-blocking, I fully understand the moral (or even legal) burden of being the developer of an ad-blocker, let alone being the "face" of the ad-blocking industry; therefore, I understand and respect Marco's decision of pulling Peace.<a class="footnotes-backlink" href="#fnref2">↩︎</a></p></li>
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