43% of people in this poll block 3rd party scripts which measure website analytics. How will companies survive and generate real data? What are the best option(s)?
The short answer is that it depends on what exactly you are trying to track.
Simple things can be obtained via server logs or tracking pixels.
well as long as people don't block images you still can track the client, the IP and so on but the general "over application mapping" you would have to use something like "IP+MAC+CLIENT" to have something like an identifier.
That's for the websites I personally block all tracking scripts with my main browser but still since I don't block Images I always will and can be tracked.
I don't know about google analytics heuristics but at the mobile word they actually create a fingerprint based on your "OS+installedapplications" which they use to actually profile your behaviour cross application.
When I was writing e-mail tracking software we used images with base128 encoded parameters to track your opening behaviour + redirects and so on, pretty basic this would mean integrating those param into your session but this leads to far.
Mario Giambanco
Director of User Experience Development
Keep in mind, HashNode is a community for developers. Things that might bug a developer 99% of the time, don't bug the average user.
So while 43% of respondents on HashNode might block 3rd party scripts, your average random user probably isn't doing that.
According to this blocking Google Analytics isn't a default action of AdBlock / AdBlock Plus and most users wouldn't know to turn it on - or care for that matter. They just don't want to see ads.
Unless of course, your target demographic is programmers. In that case, yes, this might be a problem.
An alternative solution is as the others have mentioned. Write your own system / track your own analytics and keep the data on your own servers.