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> If Google turned evil the only thing they could do would be to lie about anonymising IP addresses and attempt to match users based on IP addresses.

My worry is that Google is already evil and could be very well lying and silently using the (deanonymized) data. I have no problems with Homebrew getting that data through their own platform but seriously, fuck Google.

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Google's "anonimized IP" means setting the last octet to 0. At best that is a 256->1 grouping[1]. If you're the only person on your local class C network (x.y.z.0-255), your analytics uniquely map to your IP.

Google doesn't have to lie about how they handle IPs - they document how little anonymity they provide. Anybody claiming GA provides any real anonymity either didn't read the documentation[2] for that feature, or they are lying.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13639921

[2] https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2763052?hl=en

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