There are legitimate reasons.
Keeping a close eye on who is visiting a site, for how long and to which pages
isn't, of course, only for advertising and revenues.
Sometimes we simply want to know which are the more popular pages on our site.
I can readily imagine a technology site such as CNET, feeling the need to cut
back on expenses, reviewing the statistics to the columns written by its various
columnists. There may be numerous reasons for preferring one columnist over another, but the
question of who gets read most (or least), something that site statistics could
quite easily tell us, would quite logically be a factor in determining who, in a crunch, might
find him or herself out of a job.
Site statistics could also tell that same site that a growing number of visitors
were using a particular operating system, or a particular browser, which could
be a factor in choosing to focus more writing, or reviews, on those products,
or on tools that use those products. These statistics can also, sometimes in
a rather roundabout manner, tell us what our readers would most
like to read.
Go to: Still running it up the flagpole