There is a browser add-on that, once installed in your web browser, allows you to opt out of Google Analytics. That essentially means that if you use the add-on when visiting websites that are using Google Analytics, your visit(s) won’t be recorded. This is the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-On.
If you aren’t using the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-on, your visits to sites suing Google Analytics will be recorded and logged as a visit. When the website’s webmaster or site owner looks at their Google Analytics data, they may not be able to tell where you came from (your visit might show as a direct visit with no referrer). Or, they certainly will most likely not be able to see what keyword you used to visit their website. Most keyword data is now scrubbed, and the site owner cannot see it. It’s ‘not provided‘.
But this goes one step further. Your visit is not recorded at all.
If you’re concerned about privacy, then you can use this Add-on and your visits won’t be recorded at all. I can see this actually being helpful, especially as an alternative to excluding your own visits from being recorded on your own website. For example, a large company that has many employees who may visit their own site could install this add-on on web browsers and they won’t be recorded when they visit their own website.
From the tool:
“To provide website visitors the ability to prevent their data from being used by Google Analytics, we have developed the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on for websites using the supported version of Google Analytics JavaScript (analytics.js, gtag.js).”
This is an official browser add-on created by Google, and it appears that there are about 1,000,000 users who have installed it. I tested it just now, and the add-on does, in fact, work. I was able to go to Hartzer.com and had the ‘real time’ analytics open, and didn’t see visit. However, since I have a chat function on my website, I was able to confirm that I was on the site, as I can see myself through the admin of the chat.
Right now I don’t see this being a concern for site owners using Google Analytics, as there aren’t enough users using this add-on to make a difference. But, keep in mind that there are users who use it, so you’re going to see all of the visitors.
