A friend of mine periodically downloads movies from a torrent site. He told me that today he noticed a message at the bottom left of his screen (when on the site) that read "transferring to google-analystics.com" (apparently the page froze for about 30 sec. and then the message disappeared). He told me that he realizes it's used for tracking, but asked me if I knew more about it - i.e. if some law enforcement division is monitoring the site to crack down on users. I have no idea and therefore figured I would pose the question here.
Honestly I'd be more concerned about malware than the law.
It's used for tracking, some software also uses (or used) it like UltraDefrag, UltraDefrag Portable, etc.
"transferring to google-analystics.com"
That is spelled incorrectly!
How I personally block it is via the Windows HOSTS file:
127.0.0.1 google-analytics.com 127.0.0.1 ssl.google-analytics.com 127.0.0.1 www.google-analytics.com
and Ghostery blocks it by default too. (probably AdBlock+ also)
Thank you Andavari and mta. I passed on the info to my friend (and gave him the link to this). The spelling error was my mistake
Should also mention I've also found the code for it in HTML Help files of programs. While add-ons like Ghostery will effectively block it when visiting websites, the HOSTS file will block programs system-wide from using it.