The Switch Shop on the Nintendo Switch has Google Analytics enabled by default. While Google Analytics can be disabled on your Switch, Nintendo does a great job of hiding this from users. The process is made more difficult by the fact that navigating the Switch Shop on a Switch is a painful process (Nintendo’s servers do not seem to be up to modern standards). I suffered through the process so you do not have to. Behold, a step-by-step process (no pictures, however – see this guide from Gadgets 360 if you need a visual aid):

  1. Enter the Switch Shop on your Nintendo Switch
  2. Move from the left sidebar menu to your user icon on the right side of the screen
  3. Click your user icon
  4. Move your selector off the left menu (Account Information) to the right (you should be on “Available Funds”) after doing this
  5. You will have to scroll all the way down to the bottom of this menu, I counted having to press down on the D-Pad 12 times to reach the option where I could disable Google Analytics

Whew. Nintendo makes the Google Analytics-disabling difficult. Firstly, the option is very-well hidden. One would not necessarily expect for Google Analytics settings to be at the bottom of a menu which begins with payment information. In order to get to it, you have to scroll through payment options, password settings, and primary console settings. “Google Analytics” did not become visible until I had pressed down 11 times (12 times to actually reach the toggle).

I have two notes. Firstly, this setting only affects accessing the Switch store on your Switch. It does not affect accessing the Switch store or your account through the web GUI (you can use your ordinary tracker blockers in that case). Secondly, Google Analytics is only one setting. The most industrious Switch users may consider other tools, such as playing with their router settings or configuring their own DNS server.

Finally, if you do not have a Switch, you may find my similar guide for cookie settings Steam to be more useful.