Whether you wrote it or use it makes no difference, your users privacy is compromised when they visit your site.
(a) Us to remove said services (b) Our competitors to not (c) Us to suffer unjustly, while they prosper
Then no. The obligation should be on the provider of those services, or the law should be enforced equally. It's not enforced at all.
We clearly explain what those services do in our privacy policy and we include in that an explanation of why we see there being no meaningful privacy implication for users. What's the worst Facebook/Google could do with your information - know you looked at our website? It's hardly porn.
> (a) Us to remove said services (b) Our competitors to not (c) Us to suffer unjustly, while they prosper
That everyone else is doing wrong is not an excuse to do wrong as well. Suffer with dignity, or be treated as one of the "bad guys".
It's a trade-off. We gain privacy, and some companies potentially lose some business.
The law is not enforced in the UK at all. Accordingly those who do comply are being penalised unjustly.
The ICO (body responsible for enforcing) have themselves said they probably won't prosecute people for using analytics, because even though that's against the law it's not really all that bad. That's just one example of how vague the law has become.
So we're left in a mess where no-one knows what to do, and those doing the least possible profit. Hence our stance.
Hope that makes sense!
Is it because of the third-party component?
Shops don't know the last shop you visited, but websites do know the last website you visited (referrers). Shops don't assign you a unique ID the moment you walk through the door which they use to identify you on subsequent visits, websites do (cookies).