I had a conversation with an exec at a company I worked for in which they expressed pride that our website doesn't track users like those other sites, and I had to break it to them that we heavily used and relied upon every Google ad and analytics product (the latter of which they were obsessed with) and had Facebook "Like" buttons all over the place.

It's easy to go about your daily work and forget about the ways in which you're opted into various data-collection frameworks.

Regarding comments pointing out the Facebook integration on Medium, I think it's okay for people to criticize a system from within the system.

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." -Upton Sinclair

Reminds me of that comic. "Maybe we should improve the world somewhat".

Nailed it.

That's not really an excuse. A developer might be asked to implement Facebook tracking code, but a conscientious developer will ensure the browser's "Do Not Track" setting is respected.

It's as simple as:

    if (!navigator.doNotTrack) { // Tracking code }