That tricky thing about server-side tracking nobody talks about
Original: Agency, Transparency, and Control: Unsolved Problems With Server-Side Tagging
Summary
Simo Ahava critiques blind spots in server-side tagging—especially around user rights.
Who This Is For
Analytics Engineers
Technical Marketers
Marketing Ops
Key Takeaways
- Server-side tagging inadvertently breaks ad blockers, reducing user control over their browsing experience
- Data stream consolidation creates complex scenarios where user privacy choices aren't properly respected across vendors
- There's no standardized way for websites to detect which vendors are blocked by user's ad blockers
- Current server-side implementations lack transparency - users can't see what data flows are happening behind the scenes
- Technical solutions like mock requests to check blocked domains face CSP policy restrictions
Tools & Technologies
Google Tag Manager Server-Side Google Analytics 4 Facebook Pixel Ad blockers Content Security Policy (CSP) Brave Browser
Topics Covered
privacy governance gtm consent
Ready to dive deeper?
Read Full Article on www.simoahava.com
