Imagine being invited over to someone's home, and upon walking through their front door, you are greeted with a fleet of security cameras in the living room. You try to ignore it but you start to get a little weirded out.
"What's wrong?", your friend asks you.
"Umm... nothing. Just feel a little weird that you have those cameras in here."
"Why, were you planning on doing something wrong?"
"No, but do you really need them on me the whole time?"
"No, but it was pretty easy to install them, plus they use these all over the place these days!"
So you give up and live with it, sacrificing a little bit of your privacy along the way.
This interaction doesn't happen often in the real world, but when we visit virtual homes on the internet (personal websites), we are greeted with Google Analytics (GA) and other trackers, and we should feel equally as uncomfortable.
I previously had Google Analytics installed on this site. Why? It was easy to implement. I was making a website, and I assumed all websites needed some sort of tracking.
But one day I noticed one of my browser extensions had blocked some trackers from my website, and I began to ask a few questions about why I needed GA.
Am I actively trying to increase the amount of visitors to this site?
Not at all.
Do I even care how many people come to my website?
No, I just like having a home on the web that people can visit if they choose.
Do I write down how many people visit my home in real life and what they do while they are there?
No, I want visitors to feel welcome.
Is Google Analytics adding any value to my digital life?
Nope.
I believe all technology in my life must add value. And it must add that value without taking away your right to privacy.
So, I have decided to remove Google Analytics from my site. Please contact me if any of the technology that I use on this site invades your privacy or makes you uncomfortable.
For my site, deleting GA was as easy as removing it from my gatsby-config and deleting the app in the GA console. As a bonus, my site loads a little faster! I am actively combing through this project to remove other dependencies that don't add value. Google Fonts, you're next!