Play hide-and-seek with Google Analytics

by Grant Robertson Dec 14th 2007

How much data do you think Google has about you and your browsing habits? Crazy amounts. Scary amounts. Volumes of data that make our veins run cold and keep us awake at night. But, hey, they kinda own the web, right? So what can you do?

Forty One of the most popular 100 sites on the web use Google to track their visitors. As it turns out, it's pretty simple to opt-out of Google Analytics data collection. Blog Boing shows us how, "For the more privacy cautious between us the solution for preventing any site's Google Analytics to record any information on us is quite simple. Just add to your hosts file the following lines:"

127.0.0.1 www.google-analytics.com
127.0.0.1 google-analytics.com
127.0.0.1 ssl.google-analytics.com
127.0.0.1 *.google-analytics.com

This little "hack" keeps your computer from contacting Google's Analytics data collection servers, thus keeping your data out of Google's incredibly wealthy hands.

Thanks BlogBoing!

Tags: google analytics, GoogleAnalytics, privacy, security, user tracking, UserTracking

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

tcgiant said 1:28PM on 12-14-2007

Man, and to think Google used to be the good guys, too...

ThatGuyInTheBack said 12:46PM on 1-08-2008

There are no good guys.

Rich said 2:28PM on 12-14-2007

I did that, plus use CustomizeGoogle addon for Firefox. It has a option to prevent info being sent to GA. I also have the urchin.js in my Adblock filter list.

RP said 11:24PM on 12-14-2007

Does Windows HOSTS file support wildcards?
> 127.0.0.1 *.google-analytics.com

BTW, on Windows, you can use 0.0.0.0, which is sometimes faster to timeout/fail:

0.0.0.0 www.google-analytics.com

Ron said 2:51AM on 12-16-2007

Google found some way to bypass those 4 lines in the HOSTS file.
tho I wrote those 4 line in my HOSTS file, google-analytics is still loading. (I can see Its loading in my win-xp Firefox)

Diddle said 5:47AM on 12-16-2007

...or just add those to your BlockSite Firefox plugin.

Featured Time Waster

Civiballs is a beautiful, soothing physics puzzle Time Waster

I have an absolute weakness for physics games, and while Civiballs isn't the strongest physics-based game, what it lacks in the physics department it makes up for a few times over in style and fun.

In Civiballs, you are presented with a few colored balls, and your goal is to get those balls into the same-colored urn on the level. The "civi" part of Civiballs is that there are 3 sets of levels to play, each representing a different civilization. While the civilization doesn't affect gameplay, the artwork for each level is beautifully themed to it's appropriate era.

To play the game, you are given only one tool - a sword with which to cut the chains that are holding the balls. The puzzle part of the game is in figuring out what order, and with what timing to cut each chain. Do it right, and all the right balls end up in the right urns, with no stray balls entering an urn (a no-no). Do it wrong, and you get to start over again.

Civiballs is not terribly deep on gameplay; the entire game can be completed in about 15 minutes. But if you enjoy this type of game, it will be a very enjoyable 15 minutes.

View more Time Wasters