Comments on: Google now tracks “Google Alert” links http://www.razzed.com/2009/11/12/google-now-tracks-google-alert-links/ Blunt Musings: Analytics, Search, Marketing, and Privacy. And other random thoughts. Sun, 05 Sep 2010 20:37:29 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Yeah http://www.razzed.com/2009/11/12/google-now-tracks-google-alert-links/comment-page-1/#comment-156 Yeah Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:14:20 +0000 http://www.razzed.com/?p=381#comment-156 Gee, and I thought that it was just me that noticed this additional Google tracking. Did Google ever inform us it was doing this? No, it did not. Did Google give us an option to opt-out? It did not. I’ve just switched back to text based alerts – these don’t have the Google tracking. They’re not as easy to read, but I don’t want Google tracking my clicks. And here I was thinking that the difference between text and HTML based Google Alerts was only in the presentation. Instead, Google used the nice HTML formatting to obfuscate the fact it tracks our clicks. Gee, and I thought that it was just me that noticed this additional Google tracking.

Did Google ever inform us it was doing this? No, it did not. Did Google give us an option to opt-out? It did not.

I’ve just switched back to text based alerts – these don’t have the Google tracking. They’re not as easy to read, but I don’t want Google tracking my clicks.

And here I was thinking that the difference between text and HTML based Google Alerts was only in the presentation. Instead, Google used the nice HTML formatting to obfuscate the fact it tracks our clicks.

]]>