[boost] google-analytics and privacy

Subject: [boost] google-analytics and privacy
From: Steve M. Robbins (steve_at_[hidden])
Date: 2009-04-25 18:36:29

On Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 10:55:42AM +0400, Vladimir Prus wrote:
> Steve M. Robbins wrote:
> 
> > On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 11:49:13PM -0500, Steve M. Robbins wrote:
> >> > > Beman Dawes wrote:
> >> > >> I've gotten badly sidetracked by non-Boost work, but would like to get
> >> > >> the 1.39.0 beta out tomorrow if at all possible.
> >> > >> 
> >> > >> Are there any known showstoppers?
> >> 
> >> Many of the HTML doc files have
> >> 
> >>   <script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript">
> >> 
> >> in them.  Some will find it inappropriate [1,2] to track their reading
> >> habits.  I imagine it might cause a problem for those who want to read
> >> offline.
> >> 
> >> Can the docs be re-generated before release without these scripts?
> > 
> > Forgot to list the offending files:
> > 
> >   libs/gil/doc (basically all of them)
> >   tools/build/v2/index.html
> > 
> > (this is true of both release and trunk)
> 
> I am unsure that privacy concerns there are might be. I don't think Google
> provides per-IP data at all, and even if they did, it's unclear why the
> list of documentation pages read counts as minimally sensitive information.

Certainly many people will not be bothered by this, but some will: I posted
because I was asked to remove the script from Debian [1].

A compromise is possible: remove the tracking from the source files,
used in offline reading, but add it for docs located on the web
site, as tools/build/v2/roll.sh appears to do.

Regards,
-Steve

[1] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=524186