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title: Removing Site Tracking url: https://sonniesedge.co.uk/posts/removing-tracking hash_url: 43a9815db3

I’ve just pushed a commit to my site that will remove Google Analytics tracking from this site for good.

It was just 4 or 5 lines of code, but it represented me being compilict in the tracking of you, the beautiful person reading this, as you moved across the web.

Google Analytics is in the same breed of tracking software as Facebook, and I’m sure you all know how vehmently against Facebook I am (“Facebook are fucks” is my official statement). So why would I allow one of those things on my site, but not the other, when they enable exactly the same level of awfulness?

In fact, in an act of rank hypocricy, I myself disable all loading of Google Analytics whenever I visit a web page. Why should it be okay for me to force this spying script on each visitor, but perfectly okay for me to disable the same script when I make my merry way across the web?

In truth, Google Analytics has always been a bit of a childish self-validation crutch. “Look how many visits I’m getting ma!” It doesn’t really serve a purpose for me. I design my site for everybody, so I don’t need to track where people are coming from. I design my site for every device, so I don’t need to track OS and Browser. I have zero interest in the awfully revealing demographic data that GA exposes. I really have no need to see real-time data on visitors. It’s all really for nothing.

So taking all those things into account it is time to say goodbye to Google Analytics. It was good while it lasted.