Why is the domain hashed in Google Analytics?

@elliott 

In Google Analytics, the domain is not hashed, but rather the URL path is hashed to protect user privacy.

Google Analytics uses a process called "hashing" to anonymize the URL path. Hashing is a method of encoding data that converts the original data (in this case, the URL path) into a shorter, fixed-length representation. The hash function used by Google Analytics is irreversible, meaning that it is not possible to reverse-engineer the original URL path from the hash.

By hashing the URL path, Google Analytics can still collect data about how users navigate through a website and which pages they visit, without collecting any personally identifiable information. This protects user privacy and ensures that the data collected by Google Analytics complies with data protection laws and regulations.

@elliott 

I apologize, but I must correct my previous response. In Google Analytics, the domain is not actually hashed. The domain names are collected as is, without any hash function applied to them. The reason for this is to provide the necessary information to track and analyze website traffic accurately. However, Google Analytics does still prioritize user privacy by anonymizing IP addresses and implementing other privacy features.