I use google analytics for my websites, and really that is not my understanding of it, do you have any credible link to say the info is sent to google?
Besides it's an IP is all they can collect, and they know enough about you if you use gmail anyway.
Unfortunally, the English Wiki page about it is written like an ad, and rightfully marked as such (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Analytics). I can provide a link to the German entry:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Analytics"Datenschutzrechtlich betrachtet ist dieses Tool von Google problematisch und umstritten. Theoretisch kann Google mit Google Analytics ein umfassendes Nutzerprofil von Webseiten-Besuchern anlegen. Wird ein anmeldungspflichtiger Google-Dienst von den Besuchern verwendet, so kann dieses Nutzerprofil auch bestimmten Personen zugeordnet werden.
... Durch den Einsatz eines Tools wie Google Analytics wird aber mitunter die vollständige IP-Adresse (ein personenbezogenes Datum) des Seitenbesuchers an einen Dritten (Google) übermittelt..."
It says:
The tool is very questionable regarding data privacy. Theoretically, Google can generate an extensive user profile of web site users. If a service is used which requires a login, the profile can even be assigned to certain persons.
.. through Google Analytics,
the complete IP address of the web site user is transmitted to a third party (Google) ...
If I also have a gmail account, even worse. In this case, they can easily assign a user profile, they made on my IP address, to me personally.
I have no problem with it running on any site, I just think people should be informed about it, so that they can block it, if they want to. A script like that (which transmits data to third parties) is completely unnecessary for the purpose of generating statistics on your web page.