Almost every company with a half decent optimization strategy will use similar sites to measure interactions and categorize users. Most of these measurements are things that a site could do on its own (like analyzing how effective a call to action is) but it makes sense time and cost wise to outsource to an expert.

If you're worried about this- use an adblocker or don't go to corporate sites.

Sorry to hear your perspective on that.

1) Addthis is what we use for sharing. It's helped us a lot. 2) Google analytics puts in doubleclick. 3) Facebook sharing... yup. 4) We're currently running an A/B test with Optimizely. 5) Segment.io is a great analytics tool.

I'd recommend all the above services. That's my opinion on the above!

The trouble with the FB button is that is lets FB track you just by visiting the page, even if you don't click on the button. You could use a non-JS version of the button, or use a "two-click" button that doesn't load scripts from FB until the user is ready to share something.

This answers a reason for why you have them.

However, the point remains. They all do user tracking.

Install Ghostery to block these and other trackers.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ghostery/

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ghostery/mlomiejdf...

My uBlock setup (default v0.9.1.0.1-signed setup on Firefox) blocks them all bar sdk.js from connect.facebook.com

I wonder why FB isn't being blocked. Anyone any ideas?