The title says everything.

You should be able to opt out of statistics, the website asked for so much information “for statistics” I'd rather not give. I don't particularly like it, either.

is this a duplicate of something? I think so.

What sort of specific information are you asking to withhold? Is it just country and age? Or are you also asking to not be represented as a project creator or active commenter on the Scratch website?

Za-Chary wrote:

What sort of specific information are you asking to withhold? Is it just country and age? Or are you also asking to not be represented as a project creator or active commenter on the Scratch website?

No, everything.

I think there should be another option in account settings, where you can accept statistics or fully decline. I don't really see a need to participate as a project creator or commenter, either.

So maybe, 4 options:

Participate in statistics
Decline for only age and country
Decline for only project creating and comments
Decline from everything

Support this and I also propose the removal of google trackers from the site as well.

No Support for declining everything. Projects and comments do no harm. However, for country and age, support, as it is definitely more possible to get identified by that, especially if you live in a country like Dominica (75K) or Monaco (39K) or even Samoa. (200K)

Techno-CAT wrote:

I also propose the removal of google trackers from the site as well.

That's been rejected.

BlueStarPort wrote:

Techno-CAT wrote:

I also propose the removal of google trackers from the site as well.

That's been rejected.

Citation? edit:https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/329463/?page=2
Read through it, this comes up. good point

The Privacy Policy wrote:

By using Scratch, you consent to the placement of cookies and similar technologies in your browser in accordance with this Privacy Policy. The information collected in this manner includes your IP address, network location, what browser you are using, device IDs and characteristics, operating system version, language preferences, referring URLs, and information about the usage of our site.

We use this information, for example, to ensure that the site functions properly, to determine how many users have visited certain pages, or to prevent fraud. We use IP address information to derive your approximate location. We also work with analytics providers, such as Google Analytics, which use cookies and similar technologies to collect and analyze information about use of the site and report on activities and trends. These services may also collect information about the use of other websites, apps, and online resources.

retract previous support.

Declining from things such as statistics would make the data collected skewed as it won't be a true representation of the user pool. Don't want age, country? Register with fake dates, country. Who's any the wiser?

Techno-CAT wrote:

retract previous support

Support for my suggestion?

I'm appalled. You completely support the collection of age and country? I…

Age and country is really generic. Unless you're coming from an “unpopulated island” it doesn't help you or the Scratch Team to provide or withhold information like that.

To make things more generic, it appears that most studies that use this information already de-identify you to the point where only an age and/or country is given.

Also, think about it. They have our IP address, which they obtain automatically (of course, in accordance with the Privacy Policy primarily to maintain site integrity). Personally, I would be more concerned about that than giving away information that really can't be used to track you down.
That is, unless you live in that “unpopulated island”.