

Tell HN: $ echo 127.0.0.1 www.google-analytics.com | sudo tee -a /etc/hosts - MichaelCrawford

Also:<p><pre><code>   127.0.0.1 ssl.google-analytics.com
   127.0.0.1 www.hosted-pixel.com
</code></pre>
Unlike many I don&#x27;t object to advertising.  What I object to is analytics.<p>I&#x27;m completely cool with webmasters who analyze the log files of their own servers, but I regard it as morally reprehensible that analytics services correlate visits between multiple websites.  Consider the problem faced by closeted homosexual evangelical Christians, for example.<p>There are lots of ways to ferret out the hostnames of web bug servers, however the &quot;user-friendliest&quot; way is to use a really, really old version of Safari.<p>Open the &quot;Activity&quot; window then visit a few of the more-popular websites.  The kind of websites that your Mom likes to hang out on.<p>The activity window lists the URLs and file size of each resource that goes into a web page.  The web bugs will commonly have huge, long URLs full of query parameters, with images being either 43 or 60 bytes.  Javascript &quot;source code&quot; will typically be one single byte of whitespace.<p>&quot;Don&#x27;t Be Evil&quot; indeed.
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paulhauggis
yeah, well, google has made it difficult for 3rd-party analytics tools to
collect query data so analytics is really the only thing you can use.

~~~
MichaelCrawford
I'm completely cool with you knowing what queries I used to give you a search
engine referral. Unfortunately google was the respondent in a lawsuit by
someone who objected to that.

My gripe is that you can use analytics to discover my personal traits.

For example today I felt great joy that Starbucks was playing many of my
favorite songs - some that I had not heard in years. How did they know? I
always pay cash!

But then I speculated that they're logging my computer's MAC ID then somehow
using that as a key, with the eventual result that "Red Right Hand" by Nick
Cave and the Black Seeds starts playing.

~~~
ljk
> _For example today I felt great joy that Starbucks was playing many of my
> favorite songs - some that I had not heard in years. How did they know? I
> always pay cash!_

Startucks doesn't just play a set playlist from the radio?

~~~
MichaelCrawford
I don't actually know how they get their playlist, but I expect it's chosen in
part by professional DJs, and in part by analyzing coffee sales.

That is, while I may enjoy hearing Red Right Hand that doesn't mean I bought a
coffee in response.

However the dreary playlists of ClearChannel FM radio was the direct result of
determining what music produced the most ad revenue. In the long run though I
stopped listening to the radio; at home I listen to recorded music or else I
listen to whatever a wifi spot is playing.

I would be very interested to know whether all the starbucks locations play
the same songs, or whether they're individually tailored to each location. I
speculate that it's something in between, that is the locations have a choice
of one of several different playlists.

