“If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.”
You’ve heard this before. But let’s make it concrete: How much is your visitors’ data actually worth?
The Data Economy by the Numbers
What Google Makes Per User
Google’s 2023 revenue: $307 billion Google’s monthly active users: ~4.3 billion
That’s roughly $71 per user per year in revenue generated from data.
But that’s the average across all services. For advertising specifically:
- Google Ads revenue: ~$237 billion
- Advertiser ROAS (return on ad spend): typically 2-4x
This means the data Google collects generates $474-948 billion in value for advertisers annually. Your visitors are part of that equation.
What Facebook Makes Per User
Meta’s 2023 ad revenue: $131 billion Monthly active users: ~3 billion
That’s $44 per user per year extracted from user data. North American users are worth even more—around $200+ per user annually.
What Your Traffic Is Worth
Let’s say your website gets 10,000 monthly visitors. Using Google Analytics, you’re contributing:
- ~830 unique visitors per month (industry average 12 visits/visitor)
- Data points per visitor: dozens (pages, time, device, location, referrer, etc.)
- Value per data point to advertising ecosystem: hard to quantify, but real
Conservative estimate: Your 10,000 monthly visitors contribute $500-2,000 annually in data value to Google’s advertising ecosystem.
You see none of that.
How Your Website Feeds the Machine
When you install Google Analytics, here’s what happens:
1. Data Collection
For every visitor, Google collects:
- IP address (identifiable)
- Browser fingerprint
- Pages viewed
- Time on site
- Click patterns
- Scroll behavior
- Referral source
- Previous browsing (via cookies)
- Device information
2. Profile Building
This data feeds into Google’s unified user profile system. Your visitor’s behavior on your site helps Google understand:
- Their interests
- Purchase intent
- Life events (moving, graduating, having kids)
- Income level
- Health concerns
- Political leanings
3. Ad Targeting
Google sells access to these profiles to advertisers. “Show my ad to people who recently visited dental websites” becomes possible because of tracking scripts like Google Analytics.
4. The Flywheel
Better data → Better targeting → Higher ad prices → More revenue → More data collection investment
Your website is a cog in this machine.
The Trade You’re Making
“But Google Analytics is free!”
Is it? Let’s inventory what you’re actually trading:
You Give:
- Visitor privacy (without meaningful consent)
- Competitive intelligence (Google sees your traffic patterns)
- User behavior data (your visitors’ actions become Google’s asset)
- GDPR/compliance risk (liability stays with you)
- Page speed (GA scripts slow your site)
- Ad blocker losses (30%+ of traffic invisible)
You Get:
- Analytics dashboard
- That’s it
Google gets an asset worth billions. You get a dashboard you could replace for $15/month.
The Privacy Alternative
Here’s a different model:
You pay: $15-29/month for analytics You keep: Your visitors’ privacy, your data sovereignty, your compliance peace of mind Google gets: Nothing
This isn’t about hating Google. It’s about recognizing the trade you’re making and deciding if it’s worth it.
Real Talk: Does Privacy Matter to Your Visitors?
Studies consistently show:
- 79% of consumers are concerned about data collection
- 81% feel they have little control over their data
- 48% have stopped buying from a company over privacy
- 65% distrust companies’ data handling
Your visitors may not articulate it, but they feel it. That slight unease when ads follow them around the web? That’s your website (and millions of others) feeding the surveillance machine.
The Plot Twist: Better Analytics Without the Surveillance
Privacy-first analytics isn’t a compromise. In many ways, it’s better:
More Accurate Data
Ad blockers block Google Analytics. They generally don’t block privacy-first tools. You’re seeing more of your actual traffic.
Cleaner Dashboard
GA4 is notoriously complex. Privacy-first tools focus on what matters: visitors, pages, sources, trends.
Faster Website
Our script is under 3KB. Google’s implementation is often 10-20x that size. Speed matters for conversions.
Zero Compliance Risk
No GDPR concerns. No CCPA worries. No consent banners needed.
Ownership
Your analytics data stays yours. We don’t aggregate it, sell it, or use it to build profiles.
Making the Switch
Deciding to stop being someone else’s product takes about 15 minutes:
- Sign up for Zero Trust Analytics
- Add our one-line script
- Remove Google Analytics
- Delete your cookie consent banner
Your visitors get privacy. You get analytics. Google gets nothing.
That’s a trade worth making.
Stop feeding the surveillance machine. Start your free trial and keep your visitors’ data where it belongs—nowhere.