Google Analytics: A Parable
Imagine, you walk into the Good Old Coffee Shop. After a short wait in line, filled with a large line of quickly moving, generally satisfied customers, you walk up to the register and are instantly handed a cup.
“Oh, I haven’t ordered yet”, you respond politely to the barista.
“No need!”, the young barista tells you. “We saw you leaving work and telling your coworker about a half-caf mocha latte. Here it is!”
Slightly perplexed and a little embarrassed, you respond, “Wait, you saw me?”
“Of course we did. We have eyes at your job, so we see everything that goes on.”
Your brain goes to a few of the off-hand comments made about your boss.
The barista, not seeing your sudden deep anxiety setting in, goes on, “We also have new hot mugs available for $12 each. You can replace the one you broke the other day.”
You had forgotten about the mug. “How did you even know?”
“You had mentioned something to your partner, and they had mentioned something about it at the grocery store the other day. The grocery store shot us the info, so we could make sure to be ready.”
The line is growing behind you. The crowd seems to be ignoring your interaction, but are apparently growing more and more upset about their growing caffeine withdrawal.
“It’s starting to sound like you see everything I do”, you offhandedly exclaim, somewhat sarcastically.
“Well”, the barista responds, “Just about every place you visit tells us more about you. Your job, your friends’ places, your doctors.”
MY DOCTOR! This is starting to become bizarre.
“Don’t worry, we haven’t told anyone about your…issue.” You receive a polite wink from your coffee server, as you feel the blood rush to your face. You politely take your half-caf mocha latte, and walk embarrassedly away.
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If you think about it, Google Analytics is everywhere. It’s on just about every website and web property you have ever explored.
Google Analytics tracks movement on almost 70% of sites on the web. While most businesses and developers see the immediate benefit of tracking usage of that particular site, what’s happening underneath the surface is much more sinister.
Your data is used to ensure that those marketing through Google Ads can target YOU as a consumer as directly as possible. For Google, that means nearly $30 billion of revenue in 2018 Q2 alone. For you, that means more annoying ads based of what you search.
It means that advertisers can know just how much you need that ointment by how much you search for “Is this mole cancer”.
It means that advertisers can know your political alignment because of your focus on certain left- or right-leaning websites that use Google Analytic tracking.
Every search. Most every site.
And there’s not much way around it. This is why we at tripleNERDscore are creating Engauge Analytics, Analytics without the Evil. Because there has to be a better way.
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Want to try an experiment? Next time your browsing, try and see if you can see where you’re being tracked. See if a site is logging your activity to Google. Then, check out the ads that you begin to be delivered.
It can be rather fascinating. Or terrifying, depending on what you’re searching for.
