Well, I block GoogleAnalytics with uBlock and uMatrix.
Company A tracking my visits to Company A's website = OK
Company A using Google Analytics to track my visits (while also enabling Google to track me across multiple sites) = Not OK
EDIT: (replying here as we've reached max comment depth) - I was unaware that it is possible to use Google Analytics server-side only (is this true?) but I hope my original point is still clear, DIY tracking is fine.
You misunderstand. There have been several commentators here on HN saying that they are moving Google Analytics server side. They seem to think that people are only objecting to the cookie or the presence of the JS rather than objecting to the pervasive cross-site tracking.
You can also just host the ga.js file yourself. Or run a reverse proxy or any of a dozen other methods to collect data and pass it to GA. Using the standard 3rd party tag is just for convenience.
I'm pretty sure it's the same mechanism used for mobile/app non-browser tracking.
If you want to see a simplified version of what this log looks like, run 'python -m SimpleHTTPServer' and visit localhost:8000.
Ofcourse people can(and do) sell their server logs to 3. parties anyway...
I'm not in that particular market, but I know people who are and tbh more often than not I think it's an arms race the individual simply cannot win. Unless there's a conscious effort from browser-makers to actively counter tracking practices, you should assume everything you do on the web is public and can be tracked by multiple parties.
This can be as simple as hosting a copy of GA.js yourself but there are plenty of options like using the server-side API if you have GA enterprise or just using a reverse-proxy like Nginx with some rewriting logic.
3rd-party only means it's a different domain (with security usually implemented at the browser level) - it's not some magical wall of isolation.
That's unsettling.