HACKER Q&A
📣 throwaway727255

Do you push back on tracking scripts at your company? How?


I'd like to push back against it both from a) a technical standpoint (we have 5x as much marketing JS as actual app JS) and b) a principle standpoint (I believe it's wrong to track people this pervasively). For example: we have a client-side script for every single one of the dozens of social networks that we buy ads on, for the purpose of tracking conversions.

I'm a senior front-end dev so I have some amount of sway in this matter, but I'm not sure how to make a business case for cutting down on this stuff. The impact on SEO is something, and we're going to look for ways to trim the fat, but I think the conversion data is more valuable to the higher-ups than a few points on our Lighthouse score.

Has anybody had this conversation before? Any suggested angles I can take?

  👤 paulcole Accepted Answer ✓
> I'm not sure how to make a business case for cutting down on this stuff

What are the business goals that the tracking scripts are working to achieve? What alternatives are there to achieve those goals? What are the downsides to those alternatives?

Start there.

👤 gtsop
Can you not hide behind the GDPR shield to push your opinion? As in, "sorry guys, a user must consent to tracking before we load any scripts and send any data. Only functional cookies allowed by default".
👤 cm2012
I'm a marketer and think tracking is fine and ethical. That said we have a few extremely security focused clients who moved away from JS tracking, so I'll tell you the compromises I've seen:

1) Setting up server to server integrations with FB and Google to send conversion tracking to to the platforms directly, no JS needed.

2) Creating a sandbox to hold pixels (not sure of the tech details).