WTF?

[opcoded]

Thanks to kuangning for posting this.

Livejournal announces stat gathering changes

I'm curious as to other people's opinions on this. On the surface, at least to me, it looks somewhat harmless. However, there's not much known about the service they're using to gather these statistics, so I'm a bit apprehensive.

There is an opt-out option, thankfully. Just go to the Admin Console and type "set opt_exclude_stats 1"

I'm just wondering other people's thoughts on this. I realize a lot of people will likely opt out of the data gathering, but I'm curious as to what the overall concensus is (to kind of foster some sort of discussion, at least. I need brain fuel!).

Comments

[prince.livejournal.com]

i opted out :)

[ladycelest.livejournal.com]

I opted out.

[ryan-speck.livejournal.com]

It's straightforward. It's the same as most of the stats collected by every website.

My stat program on MediaGauntlet collects all the same information from every person that views the site. It's pretty standard.

[kuangning]

My problem with it is not that they're looking at what I do on their site; it's the part where they're gathering data on where I go when I leave it. Given the kind of links my friends sometimes throw at me, and LJ's willingness to ban accounts for OMGthinkoftheCHILDREN ... I'd rather just sidestep the entire possibility.

[witchchild]

I'm going to mention this later myself, didn't know it was happening. I opted out.

[deusinnomen.livejournal.com]

I think it's much ado about nothing.

[archmage.livejournal.com]

Big freakin' deal. Most large websites track usage of pages, what you click from where, etc. This is not some weird practice, it's pretty basic, and they don't usually bother telling you. Why? Because it's not a big deal, they're tracking traffic. No worse than than watching cars on the road, and what turns they make.

Still, this is LJ, Land of Drama, and there will always be people that want to use the site, want it to improve in myriad ways, but don't want ANYONE to know ANYTHING that they are doing. Looking over the comments, there, I think I could name a bunch of them.

If nothing else, this isn't even new. As they said, they've already been doing it, just not on custom theme pages (due to code issues, I bet). now, they've fixed the code to do it everywhere...but as they mentioned profile pages, it freaked everyone out. "Not my personal info!" they scream (which is not what this is reading, anyway). Of course, they could always opt NOT TO PUT THEIR PERSONAL INFO ON A PUBBLICCALLY ACCESSIBLE PAGE in the first place, but I guess it's just another symptom of the lack of Personal Responsibility in humanity these days.

Cripes, the tinfoil hats come out in droves.

[bohemu.livejournal.com]

I was okay until I started reading the comments. WTH.