Website trackers. We've all visited sites with them. Whether it be google analytics, facebook, twitter, or any site, we've all visited sites with them. And in this article I'd like to explain why they shouldn't be on websites. To summarize why they shouldn't, I'll say: They only benefit the companies and have no real benefit to you, they give these big companies information on what you're doing even if you don't use them, and they make it possible to build a profile on you that they will use to make money off of you.
I'll start this off by saying website trackers don't offer anything to your site you couldn't do. The twitter and facebook ones, for example, offer the ability to show your posts on your website. This makes it easier to share content to users of your site, giving them the ability to see your tweets or like your facebook posts. For those you could just make a div with the text linking to your tweet or facebook post, although you won't be able to have viewers like the posts.
Google analytics is a harder thing to tell not to use. Yes, it tracks your data and the websites you visit, but it also benefits the site owner. It makes it easier for the site owner to tell who's visited the site, how many, where, and what those visiters did. Also it helps with sales if you're hosting an e-commerce website. But for a blog or something, that information isn't needed. You don't need to see who visited when and from where. And if you really want to, you can (if your site is self-hosted). You could make a python script to check the access.log file, check how many people visited today, and do an ip to location checker to find out where they're from. But google analytics also uses users data to be google and sell it and make an advertising profile for you.
Also all of these companies use these to build a profile of you. With this information on sites you've visited and what you do, they make an idea of where you live, what your interests are, and how advertisable you are. Advertisability is a big use for these, as they build a profile off of you and this profile is used to figure out what you want. This is how you see ads on youtube that are ads for things you may want to see, and how most sites give you personalized ads.
I would just like to say there is no need for most of these things on a personal website. If you are a company and need this, then I guess you could use it. But if you can get away from it, then try to keep 40 miles away.
Sincerely,
Someone who's adblock shows a number too high.