Google today released the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on, providing users with a choice of whether information about website visits is collected by Google Analytics.

The add-on stops data from being sent from a computer when the visit websites that use Google Analytics Javascript (ga.js) to track usage. The beta version of the opt-out add-on is available for Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome, and can be downloaded here: tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Google also released new functionality for website owners to provide an additional level of privacy for visitors to their sites by offering an option to anonymize IP address information sent to Google. Google Analytics uses the IP address of website visitors to provide general geographic reporting. Website owners can now choose to have Google Analytics store and use only a portion of this IP address for geographic reports. For more information, visit: http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/gaJS/gaJSApi_gat.html

Google Analytics and other web analytics tools are used by web site owners to make business-critical decisions about how to improve their websites by understanding how users engage with their webpages.