> Many just want analytics and GA is the most convenient option. Though with GDPR now website owners (many offering free content and hosting a site where a user explicity browses into with their own will) need to learn law to make sure they are compliant, which obviously shouldn't be the case for such a simple task.

The problem is that we made collecting user data the easy task while ignoring privacy protection. The fact that Google spend billions to make spying easy does not mean it should be legal. And it's really easy to be compliant - don't collect data. You don't need it to host your website, you really don't.

> I'm not going into anyone's house and force them to give me their data, I'm collection anonymous data from people who, with their own will, visit my website/use my service. Don't want me to collect your anonymous data? Sure, don't visit my site/use my service then. No one forces anyone. Regulating what tech I can use on my own website? This is ridiculous.

And you're absolutely free to ask people for consent for collecting their data or to simply block visitors from the European union. You can also not collect data or do so in compliance with the GDPR, by the way. All ways are perfectly viable.

But just because I opened a link in my browser does not mean I consent to anything - by that logic, ransomware is perfectly fine, because you visited their website and downloaded their software. This is ridiculous.