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Comment by gruez | Hacker News Reader

>From my network requests I see:

>[...]

>Nothing out of the ordinary here

looks like you're not picking up a bunch of requests. maybe you have ublock? Here are some domains that aren't on your list:

    www.google-analytics.com
    script.hotjar.com
    cse.google.com
    vars.hotjar.com
    www.facebook.com
    stats.g.doubleclick.net
    static.hotjar.com
    connect.facebook.net

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Hmm, not getting these. I disabled uBlock for my results. I'll see what else may be the cause.

I think we would all benefit from an update on your comment correcting it with the new factual information. I too have all the tracking scripts included when loading the page.

Unfortunately I cannot update my comment. But looks like my browser was blocking “known trackers” which is why they were not showing up.

Ah, that's right. I forgot we cannot edit comments the same way you can on Reddit.

None of those really stand out as being problematic.

Google Analytics, Hotjar are measurement tools. CSE is google's custom search endpoint, stats.*.doubleclick.net is a doubleclick for publishers endpoint (Google's ad server) and doesn't mean much by itself, it doesn't automatically show ads from third parties or send your data to anyone.

The Facebook tags are sadly quite popular these days, I do agree those are not ideal but they are literally all over the net with like buttons, share buttons and "sign in with facebook"

The fact that you think the Facebook tag is "not ideal" while all the Google tags are not problematic, just shows how much people has bought in to the original "Don't be evil" motto and unfortunately how easy it is for Google to go under the radar in privacy discussions.

Both Facebook and Google are advertising companies. Both of them have littered the web with their scripts and GIFs making it possible for them to track everything we do. The only difference is how we trust them with our data, and honestly I think they are very equal in this regard. Both of them will track us as much as possible within applicable legislation and their own terms.

GA is absolutely problematic. It's one of Google's main spy mechanisms. I know less about Hotjar, but it's reasonable to be nervous about any analytics package that is sending data off to a third party.

LOL you're in for a treat if you don't know hotjar and think that GA is problematic! Hotjar tracks(or used to at least) every mouse movement and click on a site so that you could analyze what happened to your clients or perspective ones.

Yes, I'm aware of that aspect of Hotjar. What I meant was that I don't know what Hotjar does with the collected data (beyond what they offer to the sites that use it).

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