So for the first time -- I am the trusting sort -- I pull up the source for hubski.com and what do we have here?
ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'
Thank you.
In any case, it wouldn't hurt to post a privacy statement for the sake of formality and full disclosure.
Whether or not any of this is moot is another valid issue. Some say privacy is dead, and from a technological perspective, I tend to agree. People aren't going to stop using cell phones, Facebook, the internet and RFID-equipment shopping just because of well-founded paranoia.
"Ensure the anonymization resp. shortening of IP addresses by implementing the “_anonymizeIp()” function on the website." Germans apparently still have a clue. And how about this?
Considering the number of discussions on privacy on this site, for the operator of this site to absolutely remain mum about the fact of the use of these tracking scripts is beyond belief. <script src="http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1">
I hadn't noticed those buttons before. So yes, that privacy policy link is long overdue. But the questions about analytics remain: Why would a LISP/arc hacker + scientist (fully versed with data visualization per your domain) require google analytics to determine usage data points? Why have you neglected to use the anonymize features of GA (if you must use GA)? http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/gaJS/gaJSApi_gat.... Finally, why were these tracking scripts in hubski.com never mentioned in context of n threads on privacy on this very site? (Maybe I missed it. Was it mentioned? Link, please.) aside:
"Tells Google Analytics to anonymize the information sent by the tracker objects by removing the last octet of the IP address prior to its storage." Pretty please, google, don't store the IP. This is the same company that ran wireless sniffers when supposedly taking street view pics. Damn that PG and his ilk for completely subverting the hacker ethics.
Mainly for ease of use and familiarity. I've used it on other sites before, and implemented it pretty early on. As for the anonymize feature, -that, I am happy to have, and I just updated it so. TBH, the biggest questions in my mind to this point have regarded the viability/structure of this community. Definitely fire at will.
My earlier general concern that Google, et al are, in fact, socializing the general population to disregard their privacy rights and concerns appears to have been entirely correct. Your response effectively says that your convenience trumps my privacy rights and concerns, and the fact that you are happy to take Google's word on their never-to-date-audited systems and honor system API is hardly comforting. There is a huge disconnect in my mind between a "thoughtful web" and the willful cooperation at the edge nodes with the centralized servers* of G, FB, etc. and their social agenda.* The value of these centralized corporate databases is entirely derived from the edge-node activity. I find it entirely thoughtless to contribute to a future society that implicitly accepts such widespread (and apparently inescapable) monitoring by unaccountable corporate actors. Had I found it acceptable, I would do my social sharing directly on the centralized corporate server apps, e.g G+. The one exception for me is Twitter Inc., since there is no pretense at privacy on their social network, and the inherent voyeurism of their centralized service does provide he benefit of making unlikely connections without extending, in any meaningful sense, the comparative reach of their centralized monitoring. So if not entirely clear: the social issue at hand is fundamentally about social choice and not attempting to "hide" anything -- I shout at the roof top, as you are fully aware. Thank you for all the effort to create and shepherd this community, and thank you to the community for the interesting and informative interactions. I quite enjoyed it. Given that a "community" is fundamentally implicit of a system of shared affinities, it is quite clear that I am at odds at a fundamental level with the social mores that inform the community of Hubski.com, and there is no longer a basis for my consideration of myself a member of this community. This will be my last posting on Hubski.com with no further exception. (If possible, disable the account for user alpha0.) Ciao!