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Comment by akkartik | Hacker News Reader

Waaiitaminute.. if I want to opt out from your information-gathering program I have to install something on my computer and constantly run it in perpetuity?

I can't wait until mailing lists try this: "To unsubscribe from our list, please send email every 24 hours to keepunsubscribingme@___.com. Here's a webapp to join to simplify the process." or "Would you like Sears to stop sending these coupons to your house? Please send a postcard to ___ every 30 days." Lol.

(Not saying this is a bad idea. What do I know? I'm going to keep it on my radar.)

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if I want to opt out from your information-gathering program I have to install something on my computer

Actually I think this is the preferred approach.

Obviously an opt-in service (where you have to agree to web analytics) is a UX nightmare and a non starter. We can't expect that of them.

So that really only leaves a cookie; which is easy to delete or lose accidentally turning on analytics again.

A browser plugin is best because:

a) people can see & audit what code is being run

b) there is positive assurance of the opt out

c) you don't accidentally lose the opt out (and thus Google avoids the eventual "angry blog post" associated with that :P)

To be fair, in a way, you opt-in.

The website owner chooses to install it on their website. You visit the website, with JS enabled. If you don't like that the website uses Google Analytics, you are free to not frequent the website anymore, or to turn of JS.

Your mailing list or coupon metaphors really aren't the same. Instead, it would be more akin to buying things from Amazon, asking Amazon them not to send advertisements, but getting made when they send you a purchase update for the purchase you made.

A real life example would be complaining to a store about being video taped while you are shopping, and the store using that data to plan a new layout based upon customer habits.

I'm aware of the implementation issues. That's why I don't dislike the idea. But they're just that, implementation issues. Look at it from the user's perspective. I'm me, I'm right here. Stop remembering me everywhere I go. Get it done.

Imagine if you were told you'd keep getting telemarketer calls because 'it's too hard to take you out.' You wouldn't care how valid that argument is.

The prevalence of CCTV is a good analogy, yes. I understand why they need to exist, but they still creep me out. I just go through my day trying not to think about them. I suspect a lot of people do the same. This plugin creeps me out in the same way, it brings up something I'd rather ignore.

Just disable Javascript, case closed.

How many people actually disable Javascript in their browser?

I'm curious, because I find it essential to do almost anything online nowadays. Even voting on HN uses ajax.

I run NoScript in Firefox and only sites I've specified have JavaScript enabled, and usually only for files served by that domain.

So I guess I'd count as someone with JavaScript disabled for the vast majority of sites where I am just reading something and not wanting to interact with the page.

I use NoScript. HN and GA are both whitelisted.

I use Chrome's built-in javascript blocking. It's simple and gets the job done. Best of all, my whitelist is synced across all my Chrome instances, including fresh installs.

About 2-3% of people.

http://visualrevenue.com/blog/2007/08/eu-and-us-javascript-d...

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