What is this mysterious gtag injected by trekkie that i see in many Shopify stores?

Shopify Discussion
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Topic summary

A Shopify merchant discovered a mysterious gtag with the format “MC-xxxxxxxx” being injected into stores by Trekkie (Shopify’s internal tracking script), raising concerns about performance impact and potential data leakage.

Root Cause Identified:
The tag originates from the Google Merchant Center (GMC) Shopify channel app, specifically from conversion tracking settings in GMC (Settings → Conversion Settings).

Critical Issue Discovered:

  • Disabling conversion tracking in GMC does not remove the tag from the store
  • Even completely disconnecting GMC fails to stop Trekkie from injecting the tag into the DOM
  • Reconnecting GMC creates a new tag that updates in Trekkie

Unresolved Problems:

  • No option exists in Shopify admin to disable only the conversion tracking while maintaining the GMC product connection
  • The original poster considers this a bug in Shopify’s Trekkie configuration
  • Another user suggests the app may be maintained by Google rather than Shopify

The discussion remains open with no confirmed solution for removing the persistent tracking tag.

Summarized with AI on November 1. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
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There is a mysterious gTag injected by trekkie (shopify internal script) to multiple shopify stores (found on google) that starts with “MC-xxxxxxxx”. Nobody seems to know where it comes from. It slows down the performance of the stores and i’m suspecting it might leak data to 3rd parties.

Does anyone have any idea where it comes from?

I have tried disabling all plugins, but the tag remains. I have only connected my G4A and Merchant Center (sus), but they have different id’s.

Much appreciated.

1 Like
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And just like that, as I was writing this the light bulb turned on in my slow brain and I realized it’s obviously the Shopify channel app in Google Merchants conversions sources (Settings → Conversion Settings).

Duh ?

Edit: I think it’s worth noting that just by removing the conversion tracking from GMC does not remove the GMC conversion tracking tag from your store. I don’t want to disable the entire connection between shopify products and GMC, so IMO this is a bug in Shopify’s trekkie configuration. There should be an option to only disable the conversion tracking in shopify admin, if they are unable to automate it through the connection.

EDIT2: LMAO, even disconnecting the entire GMC doesn’t stop trekkie from injecting it to DOM. Reconnecting creates a new tag that updates to trekkie. What an utter and complete mess. If this is the quality of Shopify dev, no wonder the one-page checkout will never roll out.

1 Like
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Yeah. noticed something similar. But I guess this app is maintained by the google guys and not shopify.
But I do have to agree. A lot of the Apps from Shopify are just superficial and do deliver only minor advantages.

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Hi,
Thanks for explaining what’s happening here. Just wondering if you ever found a solution to this?

Many thanks,
Henry