Blocking Google Analytics and the like

http://blog.techsoup.org/google-analytics

Apparently, the file that you are looking for is in /private/etc/hosts on Mac OS X. You probably need root privileges to do that.

[edit] That may be old info; the Apple page that site links to is very old. You can always use private browsing in FF 3.5 or Safar.

 

/etc/hosts approach is somewhat crude because it puts the onus on you to keep tracking for any IP address changes and updating that file.

Better bet might be to use something like Little Snitch at a nominal cost. I'm not sure about Safari, but with Firefox's NoScript plug-in, I can easily tell it to block that particular website and it does so for any pages trying to access it.

 

OK, the info is good. I was having a brain fart. You still need root privileges to do anything with the hosts file in OS X. Of course, you don't in Windows.

 

How do you block google analytics with little snitch?

 

You don't. Google Analytics works through browsers, so unless you block the ports for things like HTTP Little Snitch won't do anything. Use something like NoScript with FF if you are worried about it.

 

SafariBlock and Safari AdBlock will do the trick. I block Google analytics with them and it works fine.

 

specifically, what is it you don't want them to know?

 

EVERY web site tracks customer usage.

If you access a page, there is a record of it, so you should stop using any electronics altogether.

FYI the goal of tracking is to improve the site to work for the most customers.

 

If I'm unhappy with a site I will e-mail them. Adverts and tracking are just an unnecessary waste of my bandwidth and resources Yes, I am fussy.

As mentioned above, AdBlock and NoScript do the job perfectly. Can block anything, including site logos I don't need reminders that I'm on the site

 

Well for Firefox maybe TACO would work for that.

I'm not sure, but I installed it anyways, along with AdBlock Plus

 

I just want to block it because I own a website, and it's skewing my data.