We've removed Google Analytics to simplify our offering and reduce the privacy implications on you.
Look! No annoying pop-up.
We decided to remove Google Analytics to track user behaviour on this website. Without specific, targeted campaigns, there isn't really the business need for detailed analysis of users on this website. And because we're no longer using 3rd party tools to capture data, we don't need that annoying pop-up for you to opt in to surrendering your personal data.
Google is clearly the market leader for search and browsing, as well as dominating the mobile device market [with Android]. It has its place. But not here. Any more.
Why?
- Google Analytics has a performance hit and is overkill for smaller websites.
- We can track the number of visitors and OS/browsers being used without Google's help.
- Privacy implications - Google probably has enough data on you anyway. Do we really need to surrender so much information to the big surveillance machine?
- Google Analytics is proprietary software that we do not control. This website (as are most of our products) is built with Open Source Software, so we know what goes into into it - as can you.
- The ubiquitous pop-up banner required to opt-in to 3rd party software/cookies is plain annoying and a barrier to usability.
- Our privacy policy is now pretty slim.
We might decide in the future to re-instate some sort of analytics, but will probably look at something homegrown, organic and less intrusive.