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Comment by andyl | Hacker News Reader

If you don't want Google giving your data to the FBI, then don't use google. Oh - wait - Google is gonna get your data no matter what. Google Analytics.

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This is isn't specific to Google, and I would go further and say that ISPs are a much juicier target than Google. ISPs have the raw access to all your traffic and wilt more easily when pressed by law enforcement (eg Carnivore).

I don't think there is an easy way to solve this. From law enforcement's perspective, big tech companies have already done the hard work of getting users' data; all they need is a warrant or a NSL or any other magic ticket. That is the problem we should solve.

Disclaimer: I work on Google Analytics.

> This is isn't specific to Google, and I would go further and say that ISPs are a much juicier target than Google.

This statement probably would have made more sense when Google wasn't an ISP.

http://www.ghostery.com/

I found blocking GAnalytics broke too many websites (although that may be poor design of those sites). There's an opt out[1] which I'm sure is carefully worded that if enough people used it they could still track us but at least websites load.

[1] https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

Both Ghosterly and NoScript have a built in ability to unbreak sites that have tight Google Analytics integration.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5182359

not sure if this applies to Chrome versions, but if you are using Chrome, and dont trust Google, im not really sure what you are thinking.

Is this getting downvoted because of advertising or because of the integrity of the software?

Currently, the comment's font color is black. It appears gray for you because you have visited that site.

Why is the text so small?

Are you using chrome on android? It does that for some idiotic reason.

Nope, I was using Safari on the latest version of iOS. I'm on my laptop now and it looks normal.

For some reason, comments on HN appear with seemingly random font sizes when viewed on mobile. I've seen it on both android and iOS.

+1 i see the same behavior on my android, but don't see the issue on the desktop !

I always thought it was due to a comment being of less than a certain number of characters, as a way of diminishing throwaway comments that may generally not add much to a debate. I guess not?

The software works well and the company has been very open.

I don't even understand the ignorance of this comment every major tech company had been cited as participating and especially the isp's. Google analytics is nothing in comparason to what the isp's know

Google Analytics doesn't profile users - it's aggregate data for webmasters.

Can you prove that Google doesn't gather that data for themselves?

You just see some pretty statistics but you don't know (and possibly can't) what happens behind the scenes.

if it doesn't profile users, how is it able to supply you with the demographics of your visitors?

How to be completely Anonymous on the internet:

http://www.slashgeek.net/2012/06/15/how-to-be-completely-ano...

You could also stop using the internet altogether, because someone is going to provide an analytics service, even if Google didn't.

What I was trying to say is that the problem is not some company, but the government itself.

https://disconnect.me/

Also blocks as many other tracking scripts as can be found. I've found it to be faster than ghostery etc.

Doesn't Google Analytics just collect metadata that you're sending in your HTTP requests anyway? And basic tracking cookies for distinguishing unique users/visits?

I don't think there's really a reasonable expectation of privacy for that sort of data. You're already sharing it with every other website you visit.

Yeah there are plenty alternatives now like Cozy Cloud or Owncloud.

https://www.cozycloud.cc/

http://owncloud.org/

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