Opinions: Are privacy-friendly analytics ever ethical?

Thanks everyone.

I’ve made up my mind in that it’s okay for me personally, for a couple of a reasons:

  • I cannot use the analytics mentioned to compromise your privacy or anonymity as an individual
  • I have no monetary incentive to include the analytics: I provide resources/information for free. If you can’t find what you’re looking for on my websites, that is a disservice to you and me
  • I have whitelisted domains for analytics providers I’m okay with

As for making them opt in: you can barely get someone to opt out, and if you do, the method is obtrusive. I see no way of making analytics opt-in and unobtrusive in a way that does not render them useless.

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