Cookie usage

I love statistics! They are fun and interesting to watch, and since I’m curious I want to know things like how many people visit my blog, how long they stay, how many posts they read and so on. To ge these statistics I use google analytics, which does use cookies. These statistics are pretty much only used for satisfying my curiosity, and to see what people read about.

Read more here about how google uses this data. If you read this blog, you probably know what cookies are, but in case you don’t, you can find more information on Wikipedia. It’s a pretty interesting read, and used pretty much everywhere on the web.

I use the demographics and interest report from their advertising features, which means data is collected by google advertising cookies and anonymous identifiers, together with the google analytics cookie. Still, there is no identifying data stored.

But I don’t want to be tracked!

Do understand that this is done pretty much everywhere on the web, and just blocking this site won’t do much. However, if you want to opt out, it’s quite simple to do so. For example telling your browser what to send and how to store cookies, or installing privacy lists in adblock. Check out this article by the EFF for example, or their privacy badger extension.

As for google, you can see what information they have about you, and opt out by visiting their ad settings page. They also have an opt out browser plugin.