Why use Google Analytics? Don't you know enough about us already DAZ?
FrankTheTank
Posts: 1,499
I really hate that every time I visit this site google analytics scripts are running. If I use something like NoScripts plug-in for firefox and I block google analytics it seems to break some of the functionality of the site but then the whole site loads much faster.
You already take all my spare money. Please get rid of this big brother Google Analytics crap. Its very annoying, slows down the site, its garbage and turns me away from this site. Plus I don't need to see DAZ ads follow me everywhere I go. Its actually making me spend less here as its so over the top annoying to have DAZ ads follow me to other sites. Its like a beggar following you everywhere I go. I'm sick of it.
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Comments
Couldn't agree more! I use the same script blocker and this is the only site i have to allow GA in order to use the site.
Google Analytics are actually used to collect anonymized statistics about how users interface with a particular website or application. This data is send to Google's site, and then can be accessed by the site owner (eg DAZ) to see what features are/are not being used etc. No individual user data is attached to these statistics at all.
Regardless, of what data is or isn't collected, and how private it is or isn't, DAZ ads follow me everywhere and I despise it. So marketing should be aware of this as there's a point of saturation where you just get sick of a company. And I'm pretty much past that point.
Personally, I kinda like that the vast majority of the ads I see are Daz. At least they don't have any annoying audio or video that plays when the site loads
If you don't want to see the adds clear your Daz cookies when you leave the site. That should do it. I may be wrong.
There is something to be said for aiding in Google's warehousing of information, but the analytics script just tracks stuff that they themselves could track if they wanted to devote the considerable resources to doing so. Stuff like screen dimensions, browser versioning, path tracking, etc.
This way they in theory can be alerted as soon as a given resolution becomes problematic, or stop supporting a technology when none of their customers are using a given outdated browser.
I prefer the DAZ ads when I get them, (Adblocker blocks most) to the crap I get otherwise
I've banned all of Google's (and everybody elses) sleazy tracking garbage. Many sites including this one, don't work well but that's Daz's problem not mine.
question: If Daz (or any other company) implemented their own form of analytics (i.e. not google) would that be more acceptable? or is it the idea of tracking all together that's egregious?
Adsense is what tracks you and gives you adverts that follow you from website to website, not Analytics. The Adsense tracker cookie can be picked up from a lot of sites, Analytics is only from the site you are on. Google isn't the only Analytics tracking software
Tracking is creepy. It's intrusive, it's a violation of one's privacy, and I hate it. I think it is counterproductive, too. Who likes being spied on? Right, nobody likes that. So, would I like to buy products from a company spying on me? No.
NoScripts is not really going to cut it these days, especially if you're not blocking the slowest culprits.
You need something specifically for the thousands of trackers out there.
Here's a quick analysis of DAZ trackers (from my location):
Both. I have no problem with DAZ wanting to know my buying habits, they can poll me if they wish. i globally block as many tracking/ad cookies as I can, especially doubleclick, facebook and google.
Running Firefox 56.0, and the site works with analitics blocked (ajax.googleapis.com need to be enabled though)
There was a spell when Google Analytics had to be allowed, but I did it per visit and a few weeks ago it seemed to be unnecessary again - certainly NoScript iss till blocking it and I'm here.
When you visit a site, utilize an online service, it's not like buying a product and bringing it home. The owner of the site or service has the ability to know what you're doing. Client-side (browser) tracking is only one form of tracking that's available.
It's more 'smart' vs 'creepy'. Most users don't take surveys, most users don't submit bugs, most users are completely passive. Yet are very likely to not use a service/site if it doesn't fill their undisclosed want/need. Tracking is a transparent way of answering major user-experience questions.
This notion of being 'spied' upon isn't completely sound. It would be like walking into someone's home and shocked they're aware you're in their kitchen.
One thing to point out; the Analytics code used doesn't actually do anything, as they've turned it off. What's causing NoScript to fail is that DAZ didn't explicitly declare the return type of the variable used as integer but the code otherwise works because JavaScript can handle implied typing.
Buy something from any of the big supermarkets and the transaction is used to track the buying habits of their customers, even if you pay by cash.
All the big supermarkets here have security cameras inside the enterance.
Smile.
...that's how you get those coupons that spit out with the register tape for things you just bought.
Whatever you are doing behind the scenes DAZ geeks, you are ruining the website.
It seems like all the pages double-load, its driving me nuts. They load, then pause a few seconds, then there's some kind of reload going on. If i'm too quick to click on something after the first load, the whole page "moves" on me and then my mouseclick goes on the wrong link, its been this way for a while. But its been getting progressively worse. I can't be the only one to notice this.
And if its nothing to do with tracking software, then why is all this facebook, bing, googeadservices, etc showing up running in the background under the Noscripts thing in the corner? What are they doing if not tracking and slowing things down?
And its not a problem with my PC. I did a full boot-level scan yesterday of all attached drives to make sure it wasn't my PC. It took over 16 hours (i scanned 12TB and 4 hard drives).
But I have no malware. Totally clean. The Daz website didn't run like this a year ago. It was much faster and smoother running.
Yeah the reload is strange. My guess is it could be related to the signin? I'm using two browsers and when switching to the second the site occasionally loads the site correctly then it brings up a signing you out(!) message (without me wanting to do so) then I have to sign in again although the site was already loaded the first time correctly.
I would browse with everything blocked as its faster and without such issues but then the thumbnails don't work.
Not really; many websites, including this one, make use of web caching technology to try and make sure the site is always available in case of minor network gliches. I'm fairly sure what we're seeing is the cache updating and forcing a reload.
Yay! This is good news!
But I'm not seeing the same behaviour of automatic reloading the page to sign me in or out after it was loaded already on other sites with one domain. The only case I'm aware of something like that happening beside daz is where one account allows access to mulitple services with different domains. But even then it would only happen if I wasn't logged in before on the domain I switch to. On daz I was already logged in the day before and never logged out but it still happens ocasionally.
I think the basic premise in all internet stuff, as well as all stuff in general, is this:
"Nothing is truly free".
The basic agreement when it comes to internet is "I'll give you stuff if I get something in return". Companies build and manage websites and forums and develop software and let you download it for free, but they're not stupid. They don't invest a lot of money and get nothing in return, just like you don't go to work every day and not ask to be paid.
So all of this free internet stuff we take for granted comes at a price. And the price is we give tons of information about ourselves so that vendors can target their advertisements so they get maximum revenue from the stuff they do sell. In past years they hired marketing firms who spent a ton of money trying to figure out what their customers wanted, and now they get 100 times more information about that by extracting information about everything you do on the internet. Google knows what videos you watch, what websites you're interested in, what you buy, and on and on. And it's why the internet seems "free". It's not. Somebody pays for everything you see. And they want their money back, with a profit.
The internet is not free, and it has never been free. And vendors don't care about "user experience", they care about knowing how best to sell you something.
"The basic agreement when it comes to internet is "I'll give you stuff if I get something in return".
That's fine if they are up front about it.
But if someone gives me a free bicycle, I don't expect to find my lawnmower missing later.
With the excuse, "Well, I mumbled the deal when you weren't listening."
I don't use Facebook or Google. But I still get their tracking cookies on my computer.
Absent an explicit agreement between me and them, that's wrong.
If you have to hide your behavior, it's probably dishonest.
How many sites do you visit that don't have a link to their page on Facebook or Google+? While there are a lot that don't, I'm sure that at least some sites you visit, like this one, have them, which is most likely where tjose cookies are coming from.
There is an explicit agreement. https://www.google.com/policies/terms/ ; https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/ ; https://www.google.com/policies/technologies/product-privacy/
Just because it isn't thrown at you every time you log into to Google (which would be maddening,) does not mean there is no agreement. You do get agreements when you create an account, and occassionally Google will send reminders of what they do.
They don't take your lawnmower when they give you a bicycle. It would be more like that bicycle they give you has a fitness tracker on it that they can check to see how you use the bike. Accept the agreement, keep the bike, say no, then you can't ride the bike. Some people are ok with that, some are not. But Google is an ad company, that is what they do. Everything they create is about some sort of ad service, from browsers to the Android operating system and the mobile app store.
Yes, I know all of that. Still don't like it, don't use the worst offenders.
I'd accept the bicycle and remove the fitness tracker if possible.
It would be different if I had the option to buy my own "bicycle" and avoid the tracking.