Web Analytics Transparency, Notification, Choice and Control to Visitors
As a start-up you rarely have the luxury to set standards and drive an industry.
You simply cannot wait for the industry to catch up to your thinking, as some of your few advantages are SPEED and AGILITY - you bend the rules any way possible and then figure out how to comply when you grow up. :-)
That said.
It is wonderful and probably one of the most pleasurable elements of working for a public company like Yahoo!, that I can participate in setting the agenda for my industry.
We took a decision which would require all users of Yahoo! Web Analytics to:
1. Disclose that they do web analytics and that it is done by Yahoo!
2. Provide a tracking opt-out link in their privacy policy
There is no doubt that this is working against any potential adoption goals we have, BUT it is the right thing to do! AND I am very happy to see that we (WAA) in the voice of Jim Sterne, the Chairman of the Web Analytics Association, agree and endorse these steps taken by Yahoo! I honestly believe that it is inevitable that most web analytics providers will require that their clients abide by this approach as well.
Cheers :-)
Dennis
Letter from the Chairman,
November 20th, 2008
As an independent, non-profit organization, the WAA is sometimes asked for its position on relevant topics in the web analytics industry. Privacy is important to all of us as a misunderstanding of our tracking technologies can lead to distrust. Therefore, I wanted to share a recent question about page tagging and web beacons being mistaken for spyware as well as the WAA’s official response.
In 1999, Seth Godin taught us that opt-in is the right way to treat people regarding email. At the core of opt-in is notification and choice. Now that the public is becoming more aware of passive tracking technologies, the Web Analytics Association believes that there needs to be a clear, visible way for site visitors to make the choice to opt-out of web analytics tracking. Transparency as to what information is being tracked and how the data is being used is a must. It is simply an inevitable future privacy requisite from visitors on your website.
The Web Analytics Association endorses Yahoo! actions to provide transparency, notification, choice and control to visitors. Additionally, Yahoo! is taking this stance one step further by requiring and enforcing that websites who are using their web analytics tool disclose this fact to their visitors and provide an opt-out link for visitors who wish not to be tracked.
We believe it is not only good practice to expand your website privacy policy along the lines of what Yahoo! is doing, but it’s inevitable that most web analytics providers will require that their clients abide by this approach as well. As a corporate member of the Web Analytics Association, we are pleased that Yahoo! has taken this leadership position in the industry.
Privacy remains integral to our business, and consent is perhaps the largest component of building reputation and trust. We’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter.
Jim Sterne
Chairman, Web Analytics Association
November 24th, 2008 at 7:45
I think it’s a great move, Dennis, and I highly commend you for it!
November 24th, 2008 at 8:34
Hey Joost,
Thanks a lot. You are of course Mr. transparency, so I would have been disappointed if you did not agree :-)
Cheers.. D.
December 8th, 2008 at 7:56
Although I’m very much for transparency, I think that this borders on meaningless. When we run web analytics, we don’t rarely focus on the individual user if ever. The numbers are too large and we don’t usually look at samples smaller than 500. That being said, I don’t see what kind of privacy issues could be violated when analytics software are used. Moreover, with the available logs at the webmasters disposal, clickstream data is always available regardless. Short of the user supplying his IP (which more often than not is variable) to filter the user out, he’s in.
Yahoo’s move seems much more PR orientated than anything else.
December 8th, 2008 at 9:05
Hey Olivier
Thank you for taking the time to comment on this issue. Much appreciated. AND the disclaimer; should it not be obvious by now, I do indeed work for Y!.
>>When we run web analytics, we don’t rarely focus on the individual user if ever.
I actually agree with you than we, the practitioners, and we, the vendors, rarely focus on the individual. However; and that tends to be the issue, it is in that _rare case_ that you want to make sure that you are transparent. If not, we give people the false indication of us not collecting PII when we in fact do.
Most web analytics solutions today are moving towards not just visits based systems, but more true visitor based systems, which includes full and rich visitor profiles. Profiles that are either used for off-site re-targeting or even on-site real-time targeting. So rare might even become more common.
>>Yahoo’s move seems much more PR orientated
Since I advocated for this inside Y!, I can honestly say that this is less about PR (not to much value here anyway) and actually just about transparency (believe me, we hype everything else.. he he).
So to conclude, I actually think you are right, it is rare that practitioners use PII and people are to some degree always “tracked”.
BUT :-) I do think that it is a decent thing to inform that you track people and if they don’t like it, give them an option to opt-out.
Cheers :-)
Dennis