Just want to point out I think there's a big difference between using tracking to "gauge interest" and using ads. You can do one without the other. In fact, there are even privacy-respecting alternatives for businesses to track online traffic.
I tend to agree, even though the line can be blurry. I was more anti this kind of stuff until I used Google Analytics for the first time and saw how you could fiddle with just a few things on a page and decrease bounce rate or increase how long people stayed on page (reading the article, one hopes). I always assumed it'd involve more quality compromise or something but it's often just changing a headline and showing more before the fold. Seems like it benefits everyone to enable those kinds of iterations.
I haven't used these and would use Google Analytics if it were indeed just too much better than everything else out there. But if another service gives me everything Google Analytics provides and more, why continue using Google Analytics?
I wouldn't know though since I've never tried using these. I just know about them.
There is also Wide Angle Analytics, Simple Analytics, and few other options.
As you said. There is little reason to expose yourself to an extra risk.
From CNIls ruling (not a quote, but a summary):
> The CNIL ordered each website operator to comply with the GDPR—for example, by not using Google Analytics or “using a tool that does not involve a transfer outside the EU”.
