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Recently (past few weeks) my web browsing is often very slow, and it is often the case at these times that the status bar reads "waiting for www.google-analytics.com".
Is there any browser setting that will tell Google that I do not wish to be a participant in their analytics program, so the page won't even attempt to contact Google? Can individuals "opt out" of this in some way?
mrblint
Posted 2013-06-24T13:28:46.390
Reputation: 813
97
The 'old school' method, which works with any browser, is to add the following entry to your local hosts file,
127.0.0.1 www.google-analytics.com
127.0.0.1 google-analytics.com
127.0.0.1 ssl.google-analytics.com
This works for all browsers, regardless of whether they support plugins. As long as you don't run a web server on your local machine, these connections are instantly rejected and so don't take very long to fail.
You could also try 0.0.0.0 (never personally tested by me though).
0.0.0.0 www.google-analytics.com
0.0.0.0 google-analytics.com
0.0.0.0 ssl.google-analytics.com
EightBitTony
Posted 2013-06-24T13:28:46.390
Reputation: 3 741
The big disadvantage of this approach is loading page for about 5 sec until GA request fails – Artur Beljajev – 2017-03-08T22:28:31.670
Not sure what this does but it works – frenchie – 2017-05-21T14:29:07.527
350.0.0.0, a null route, is better. If you're running your own web server you'll start to get 404s if your route to localhost. – Darth Egregious – 2013-06-24T15:14:52.307
20.0.0.0 is not a "null route". The value has different meanings in different circumstances. In BSD-derived stacks, a 0.0.0.0 entry in the route table does represent the "default route". But the default route is not used for connection attempts to the address 0.0.0.0. – Kaz – 2013-06-24T19:25:06.793
4Yes, it is a null route. – Darth Egregious – 2013-06-24T19:44:55.180
There are a number of freebie websites where you can download a hosts file that blocks tracking cookies. I'm sure I will get in trouble if I post a link so just do a search for "Blocking Unwanted Connections with a Hosts File" and you will be rewarded. – Sam – 2013-06-25T01:00:00.850
4@Sam, why would you get in trouble? – Adrian – 2013-06-25T05:10:39.277
2These "toward myself" or "toward the end of the Internet" routing technics are slightly too late. It is much faster just to not start the TCP connection toward these spying^Wadvertisement servers. The 3 tools quoted by Gronostaj are striking there (ASAP)! – dan – 2013-06-25T10:44:48.913
0.0.0.0 is a valid IP address. At least, software had better NOT be special casing it. The default route is 0.0.0.0/0. Very different from 0.0.0.0/32. – Zan Lynx – 2013-06-26T02:00:13.717
This approach has the additional advantage that it works independently of browser settings / browser extensions, so that if you need to use Firefox or IE for some reason, your decision to block Google Analytics will be enforced, too. – jstarek – 2013-06-26T10:22:30.630
0.0.0.0 will take a long time to fail for me, as it waits until TCP times out. 127.0.0.1 fails instantaneously as it is actually always reachable. – ithisa – 2013-06-26T12:44:52.307
On my Debian box, both 0.0.0.0 and 127.0.0.1 connect to the local apache instance from a web browser. So I can't see there being any difference in performance frankly. – EightBitTony – 2013-06-26T13:18:35.203
35
There are many solutions that take the approach of blocking requests before they are even initiated:
Downloads for Firefox:
Downloads for Chrome:
Downloads for Opera:
Ghostery is also available for other browsers.
gronostaj
Posted 2013-06-24T13:28:46.390
Reputation: 33 047
25Blocking javascript entirely to prevent Google Analytics is like blowing up a pound because a puppy peed on your rug. – Jeff – 2013-06-24T21:21:18.520
17@Jeff: you mean, totally awesome? – Dancrumb – 2013-06-25T01:00:21.617
1NoScript can be set to only block a blacklist: one needn't block JavaScript entirely to block scripts from some host. – andyg0808 – 2013-06-25T02:37:43.390
3 great tools providing information (Ghostery) and protection (AdBlock & NoScript). – dan – 2013-06-25T10:37:38.527
@Jeff: Pound? Is that pound-mass, pound-force, GBP, or something else? – James Haigh – 2013-06-25T12:36:41.130
@JamesHaigh: Not sure if you're joking, but the the US 'pound' is a common term for an animal shelter, it typically means one that is run by a government agency which is also responsible for collecting strays. Wiki link
– Jeff – 2013-06-25T13:49:37.3273@Jeff: No, I wasn't joking; I wasn't familiar with the US usage. But I now get your joke. :-) – James Haigh – 2013-06-25T14:43:54.097
29
Adblock Plus or equivalent can do this for you; block anything from hostnames ending in google-analytics.com, and your browser won't even try to communicate with the service. In Adblock Plus, you'd want to add a custom filter with text ||google-analytics.com to produce this result.
Aaron Miller
Posted 2013-06-24T13:28:46.390
Reputation: 8 849
7
For the sake of completeness, although not as easy to set up as the other solutions, you could consider running an ad blocking proxy such as Privoxy. The squid proxy can be configured to block ads as well.
Another option is to run your own DNS server and filter out the badness there, which has the same effect as blocking servers in your hosts file.
Darth Egregious
Posted 2013-06-24T13:28:46.390
Reputation: 273
3+1 for dealing with these things at the proxy level. Even in small businesses, where you'd have to maintain just a handful of Firefox installations, things get easily burdensome. – Marcello Romani – 2013-06-25T08:56:44.010
3
There is a plugin Google Disconnect for Firefox which will block Google on non-Google pages, including analytics. There is a similar plugin for Chrome, Disconnect.
Ruud
Posted 2013-06-24T13:28:46.390
Reputation: 282
2
I use Request Policy for firefox. It's a bit like ghostery, in that it allows you to whitelist and blacklist cross site requests, but isn't explicitly focused on privacy.
It's pretty configurable, but I set mine the blacklist by default
E.g. to use stack overflow sites:
Everything gets blocked and doesn't impact pageload time or allow for 3rd party tracking, but the page gets little boxes you can click to load things you didn't cover by default.
LukeN
Posted 2013-06-24T13:28:46.390
Reputation: 121
0
I did not want to block GoogleAnalticsObject because I have several projects under development, AND I want them to register if I hit the external-hosted site, so messing with the hosts file is not an option. Instead, I used an "asp:Placeholder" tag to wrap the Jscript and set visibility=false when localhost, otherwise =true. Pretty simple and does the job quietly.
Alan Hord
Posted 2013-06-24T13:28:46.390
Reputation: 11
This approach seems inapplicable, since the question appears to be about other websites, where you don't have control over the source. (I agree the question could have been clearer on that) – Ben Voigt – 2016-06-23T19:02:38.530
Good point; I read the question as a “Developer” where my app was hung-loading, and not as a user – and in that regard I agree with the hosts-mod solution :o) – Alan Hord – 2016-06-23T23:51:24.277
0
Had this problem, just cleared the DNS cache and everything is back to normal. In Chrome go to chrome://net-internals/#dns and press clear host cache
frenchie
Posted 2013-06-24T13:28:46.390
Reputation: 301
Didn't work for me. – Jagular – 2017-07-12T22:32:32.183
A more important question would be: can these "side" scripts really block the rest of the webpage download? I'm really curious about this. – André Chalella – 2015-03-13T20:11:22.177
18What about NoScript and similar programs? – arne – 2013-06-24T13:34:57.100
3https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/requestpolicy/ – lesmana – 2013-06-24T17:18:48.527
+1 to arne's comment. I block google analytics, as well as numerous other scripts, with NoScript. This is a FireFox-specific extension. – Kaz – 2013-06-24T19:19:41.640
The design of the webpage is a factor here. If there are a small number of sites that bother you, you could raise it with them. – Simon Gibbs – 2013-06-25T10:58:36.233
Does Google analytics get used for estimating browser usage share? Does opting out of tracking mean opting out of browser usage share statistics? – James Haigh – 2013-06-25T15:35:52.810