How can you ignore google tracking when "do not track" flag is set by browser?

Question

What is the best practice for honouring, via Javascript, the DNT flag set in modern browsers?

Ultimately, I want to disable the likes of Google Analytics, Facebook pixel and other bespoke tracking codes if it is set.

Are there any gotchas to be aware of?

i'm guessing its up to those service providers to respect those. — Daniel A. White, Apr 11 '18 at 13:30
it comes as a header on the request to the page - so you'll have to do something on the server side i think — Daniel A. White, Apr 11 '18 at 13:32
@DanielA.White No. You can also read it on the client and disable tracking there. Google/Facebook/others mostly just ignore the `DNT` header. — str, Apr 11 '18 at 13:36
@DanielA.White I'm assuming they won't honour it, so my plan is not to send information — John Paul Hayes, Apr 11 '18 at 13:40

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 11 '18 at 13:32

You can read the flag using navigator.doNotTrack and conditionally load those trackers.

For Google Analytics, you could use the following code:

<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script>
    if (navigator.doNotTrack !== '1') {
        (function () {
            var ga = document.createElement('script');
            ga.type = 'text/javascript';
            ga.async = true;
            ga.src = 'https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-ADD-YOUR-ID';
            var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
            s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
        })();
        window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
        function gtag() {
            dataLayer.push(arguments);
        }
        gtag('js', new Date());
        gtag('config', 'UA-ADD-YOUR-ID');
    }
</script>

(Also replace ADD-YOUR-ID with your actual ID.)

How can you ignore google tracking when "do not track" flag is set by browser?

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