Now now. If the thread title was changed slightly to say 'Steam' instead of 'Gog' you'd have had people falling over each other blaming Valve, so it's not always right to defense :p

Lol, so you are saying that any user who blocks google is not counted at all on GOG's statistics? That could be quite a lot of people by looking only at popularity of NoScript = statistics data fail... xD

Well, I think they add a random data to the statistics every time they show them xD

Shall I fetch the tin foil?

Yes, GOG should have disclosed this information to us when we place an order. EU legislation requires that any information regarding our order or person sent to third parties, and in that respect GOG has broken the law.

In practical terms, however, no real harm has been done. As some have correctly stated, there is a fundamental flaw with this statement... ...namely, that the only ones with access to GOG's database are GOG themselves. If anyone gets access to GOG's database, then they will also have access to the order data including the order IDs anyway. Nothing can come from simply disclosing an order ID code that a hacker hacking into GOG's server wouldn't be able to discover without that information.

If GOG started transmitting information like names, credit card information, IPs or the like, THEN I'd start worrying.

GOG.com was able to code a new site, but not a decent purchase tracking without the help of Google ? :(

So our privacy is sacrificed...
:sad panda:

I'm just saying that "your argument is invalid" in polite way because in place of GOG I will estimate such usage of google as completely unreliable. For personal use such statistics could be "yes maybe", but for business it is "no way" for me. They have all the data already so I think they do not need just to use google for that as it is much easier to use simple query on their database.

Ditto.

Yes, you are right here. I think current flaw is eliminated by using noscript and other similar blocking plugins. But interesting thing is: why do they do that at all? Is it programmer mistake or by design? If by design then every user should be notified about that when placing an order.

Maybe it's just because Google analytics tools are GOOD? :P

...so, in summary, the problem is that GOG is using Google Analytics for their sales' statistics, but Google evil tendencies to aggregate and link to profiles all personal data it can reach makes it a privacy concern.

Thanks to pointing it out to GOG - telling why we are concerned is important. They didn't wanted to use geolocation at all at first for sales, but where forced to, and they are minimalist regarding personal data usage, so they seem to be more privacy-aware that most stores.

Are there better and still time/cost-effective services/solutions around?

But they are outer tools - any self designed tool is much better as it can be more suited to the needs and modified at any time.

Maybe their programmists wages are so small, they didn't even ask them to do it? :D

To be serious, it would be nice to hear some explanation: why google analytics, and what data is collected in general.

Dude, you can't do ANYTHING on the net without Google knowing your movements, just about every piece of traffic goes through them.

Google are not the Panopticon.

Yet.