Google allows you to block analytics

 

http://analytics.blogspot.com/2010/05/greater-choice-and-transparency-for.html

Users can now opt out of being tracked around the web by Google Analytics, the tool I use to track traffic and trends on my websites, just after we discovered SSL secure search. Google Analytics has launched tools that allows users to opt out of having their information (inc IP address), sent to Google.  It is a simple browser plug-in for IE 7 or 8, Google Chrome and Mozilla’s Firefox (no Opera or Safari yet)

Google will always get user information in aggregate, from all those who use the web, which provides them with a satellite view of web activity.  Google tends to know more about a user’s activities across multiple sites than any individual site knows and can use the analysis of the data to improve services aka My Digital Footprint business model.

So is this a preemptive strike before something else, or a tool providing some protection, or have Google run the numbers and predict that the opt outs will be so small (or repetitive to certain sites) that this will not effect the aggregate.

You can also check what Google thinks you are interested in and opt out of targeted advertising. Opting out of those will not stop Google’s display of small text ads on its sites or on other sites, because those ads are displayed, based on the content of the page you are looking at, not on your previous browsing behavior.  The opt-out utility does not block Google’s DoubleClick advertising cookie, which tracks you at sites around the net that use DoubleClick to show ads.  Finally it spears that opting out of Google Analytics will not prevent your IP information or search queries from being logged by the site directly or through other web analytics tools.