Google To Introduce Opt Out Browser Plug In For Analytics
Up until just a few minutes ago when I started reading some reports about what I’m about to tell you, I’ve been a huge Google “junkie”. I start off my morning standing at Starbucks waiting for my latte while reading my latest Google Reader feed on my Android powered PDA. Then I go on to my office where I turn on my computer and open up my Gmail. Next I log into my Google Analytics account to get the latest data for my clients. Well, apparently, (and unfortunately in my opinion) that part of my routine may be about to change.
Evidently Google has decided to introduce an Opt Out Browser Plug In that will essentially let anyone opt out of Google Analytics being able to track their web data, so that anyone who installs this plug-in will basically traverse the web without leaving any cyber footprints. What does that mean for us Google Analytics junkies?? Basically this will render Google Analytics data useless. Yes, you’ll still receive data from those who don’t install the plug-in, so you’ll be able to see some keywords that people have used to find you, and some of the sites people are getting to you from, but your page visit counts will be incorrect, even goal tracking will not be accurate.
Why would Google do such a thing? Because they’ve been getting an increasing number of complaints about privacy infringement. In my opinion, people are just looking for something new to complain about. It’s not like Google Analytics provides the names, addresses, and phone numbers of everyone that visits your site; yes you can see IP addresses, but it takes a pretty good amount of detective work to dig up more info from that, more work than most of us actually care to do.
Anyway, my point in sharing all of this is so that you aren’t shocked if you log into your Google Analytics account one day to find your site visits have tanked, hopefully that’s not actually the case, you just aren’t able to grab accurate data anymore.
What are your feelings? Should Google go ahead with the Opt Out plug-in or leave well enough alone?
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