News aggregator site Voat announced their intention to "stop using Google Analytics service, effective immediately." The replacement will be the GPL'd platform Piwik, which will be installed "when time permits," and will be hosted by Voat themselves. The announcement is getting a warm reception; as of 02:22 UTC on December 12, there are over 1100 upvotes for the newspost.
Google Analytics has been notorious for being disrespectful of privacy, from surreptitious geolocation, to downright creepy knee-jerk reconfiguration of website ads to the last visited e-commerce venue, in a desperate attempt to lure window shoppers to a purchase. Despite the existence of a browser add-on released by Google in 2010, those in the know have recommended alternative countermeasures not involving installing Google software, such as a hosts file entry, or installing NoScript to block execution of Javascript from unauthorized websites. However, Voat's approach seems to be a step further: taking ownership of the analytics data itself, and cutting off Google's attempts to monetize the otherwise private data stream between the website and the users it serves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 12 2015, @03:56PM
Renegade defectors from reddit! Hooboy what lamers.
BTW Beta sucks.