I am helping to create a small website for a local nonprofit group and would like to include a QR code for easy access. I created some of these codes from the "free" web services, and then looked at the codes. All generated codes contain a website, but I also noticed that all QR codes have JavaScript calls for PageTracker, which are silently added to the end of the code block. In all the articles I read about QR codes, no one has discussed these largely invisible add-ons.
Given that I was not asked if I would like to add these features, I assume that the use of these QR codes is monitored by Google Analytics for various sites providing the QR code generation service (I have included a JavaScript example at the bottom of this question.)
I am not happy that my website user (and their mobile phones) is being monitored by a third party without my permission or my permission. Therefore, given that my question is doubled: 1) Is there an easy way to get a QR code without hidden tracking (i.e., it just opens my website)? - and if not - 2) Is there a way that I can extract from the resulting Google Analytics data?
Thanks!
`<script type="text/javascript">` `var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");` `document.write(decodeURIComponent("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));` `</script>` `<script type="text/javascript">` `var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-788492-5");` `pageTracker._initData();` `pageTracker._trackPageview();` `</script>`
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