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Blocking Google Analytics and the like

F

firstjudge

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 23, 2008
19
0
Hi, I hope this is the right section to post this in.

Is it just me or am I the only one who finds web owners tracking my activities via google analytics disconcerting. I just found out about this today. Sure, they may not track your IP address but it's still too much information let out for my liking. It's far too big brother-like to me and I want to put an end to it. I know how to block google analytics on Windows by editing the host file but how do I do it in OS X? I'm still using Leopard btw. Thanks.
 
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. :eek: You still need root privileges to do anything with the hosts file in OS X. Of course, you don't in Windows. :rolleyes:
 
SafariBlock and Safari AdBlock will do the trick. I block Google analytics with them and it works fine.
 
firstjudge said:
Hi, I hope this is the right section to post this in.

Is it just me or am I the only one who finds web owners tracking my activities via google analytics disconcerting. I just found out about this today. Sure, they may not track your IP address but it's still too much information let out for my liking. It's far too big brother-like to me and I want to put an end to it. I know how to block google analytics on Windows by editing the host file but how do I do it in OS X? I'm still using Leopard btw. Thanks.
Click to expand...


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 :p
 
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