As we move more and more of our lives online, privacy continues to be a growing concern and justifiably so. We can make a concerted effort to limit and control what gets put online regarding situations we know – for example you can limit which photos get uploaded to your Facebook profile. But what about the privacy and tracking of things you aren’t even aware of? Would you be taken back knowing that the majority of websites out there are using Google Analytics to collect information about their visitors? Visit enough of these sites and Google has assembled quite a nice data profile of you!

It’s not very well publicized by Google in my opinion, and you can correctly assume why, but it’s a pretty straightforward process to opt-out of all the tracking and data collection by the big G. Leverage a browser plugin or extension for the big three browsers: Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer; is all you need to do.

Visit Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add On page in your browser(s) of choice.

After the click-thru the subsequent pages will be different for each browser but they are all trivial to step through and get up and running.

In Chrome click the Install button and follow the on-screen prompts.

In Firefox allow google.com access to install extensions within the browser and then click Install Now on the resulting pop-up dialog – a process you’ve repeated in the past for any other extension installation.

In Internet Explorer the add-on installer will automatically initiate upon acceptance of the licensing agreement. Unfortunately, as Internet Explorer lacks a traditional extension framework the Opt-Out software is installed like a traditional Windows program and is therefor able to be uninstalled through the Control Panel Add/Remove window.

These add-ons are an easy and excellent way to take one more step in maintaining your online privacy.