Google to offer browser plug-in for privacy protection

Google is working on developing a browser plug-in that will let users opt-out of being tracked by Google Analytics.

Google Analytics product Manager Amy Chang said that engineers had been working on the plug-in during the past years and it would become available globally in the coming weeks.

According to a study by University of California, Google Analytics had been used in 71 percent of roughly 400,000 top domains as of March 2009. Google-controlled web bugs are tracking users on 92 of the net's top 100 sites.

Although widely used in the world, the tool, Google Analytics, has always been criticized for privacy infringement.

"Now, there is a solution to that,"said Chang,"The plug-in will give users the choice to fully opt-out of sending any information back to Analytics"．

Google Analytics is a tool for tracking and analyzing site traffic. If the plug-in is finally installed in a large proportion of netizens' computers, website builders and advertisers might find it hard to get the accurate data of click rate.

Source: Xinhua/Agencies