Etsy is investigating a bug caused by Google Analytics that has resulted in some users seeing security warnings while adding new items.
Screenshot by Shoozles
In this thread, RD says:
We’ve had a few scattered reports of folks getting security warning messages. It is indeed linked to Google Analytics, the internal stats program we’ve been trying out for the past few weeks.
It is not an actual security breach, as all of the business files related to the program are stored locally on our servers.
We’re looking into the overzealous warning issue and investigating possible fizes. We’ll update you when we figure it out!
edit by JB:
More information about google analytics. Doing an internet search for “google analytics security certificate warning” turned up many other recent reports of the same problem on other websites that use google analytics. Etsy is not the only site affected.
Update by JB, August 29, 2007
Users are still getting the security popups.
RevolvingDork says:
We’ve made a few changes we hope will help prevent these from happening — we’re now monitoring the situation to see if it helps.
August 24th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
I have received this message while surfing the forums, as well.
August 24th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
*sigh*
RevolvingDork says:
” the internal stats program we’ve been trying out for the past few weeks. ”
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5015435
google analytics was on etsy in December 2006.
The bug with the security warning is new, the script being on etsy is not new.
It’s not any real security danger, he is right about that. And it’s most likely not even an etsy problem, because many other websites that use google analytics are reporting the same problems. It will probably have to be fixed on Google’s end.
But until google fixes it, I’d really like if etsy would comment out the tracker script. The warnings are intermittent and random and don’t happen to everyone, but they are quite alarming and they say to close the webpage and not return.
If any newbie buyers gets that warning even once, it’s going to freak the hell out of them and we’ve lost them as a customer for good. Lots of people are already very leery about online shopping and are paranoid about identity theft, phishing, scams, etc. Newbie buyers are not going to see RD’s post in the forums, they are just going to get the warning popup, and will panic and think Etsy isn’t secure.
August 24th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
I love seeing someone spell the word “leery” correctly.
August 24th, 2007 at 11:45 pm
well I’ll be dogged:
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5015435
August 25th, 2007 at 2:23 am
yes that’s the thread I linked to in my reply above.
RD says they tried google analytics for a short time last December, and then removed it, and then are trying it again for the past few weeks.
August 26th, 2007 at 7:24 pm
I’ve gotten a few of those pop-ups. They seem to be gone today.
August 29th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
Some users are still getting these security popups. I posted an update above in the first post.
September 4th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
[...] Previous UEN coverage of the bug is here. [...]