Loading ...The announcement on the Google Analytics blog More choice for users: browser-based opt-out for Google Analytics on the way is already creating a lot of hype. Questions are being asked about how wise it is a move for Google Analytics, with some even suggesting that it will bring about its downfall. The implication is that this is a gesture of good faith by Google based on the criticism they have received recently about their approach to privacy highlighted with the launch of Google Buzz.
Right now the analysis on the opt-out tool is a little thin and the sensationalism is rather, well thick. The main fear is that many users will install this tool when it becomes available and simply opt-out of stats and disappear off the tracking radar, and where this is potentially true, the idea that this will actually happen is pretty far-fetched. It also represents a kind of old-world thinking about Web Analytics that doesn’t stretch beyond unique visits, visits and pageviews.
As much as I resent seeing visits drop at any stage, Web Analytics is not about tracking the individual or simply monitoring the stats, it’s about identifying trends and actionable data, and developing strategies to act on that data. In fact a lot of the data you see in Analytics is based on a sample, this is most common when you access custom reports.
Huge number crunching is required to generate pivoted data, and in order to do so more rapidly Google will grab samples of data to represent a larger segment. This action doesn’t compromise tracking, in fact it expedites it allowing us to view our data from more angles more rapidly.
It’s also worth pointing out that Google isn’t the first to do this, similar tools exist for Coremetrics and Omniture’s SiteCatalyst. We also already have a segment of users who turn off cookies in their browsers, effectively disabling all cookie-based tracking. Complex calculations between log files and cookie trackers can give you a reasonable estimate on the size of this loss, and no doubt if you’re worried about the loss you’ll be researching that methodology right now.
So where this opt-out tool may cause us to loose a segment of users, which is never a good thing, we will probably not loose the insight Google gives us into user trends and segments.
The announcement on the Google Analytics blog More choice for users: browser-based opt-out for Google Analytics on the way is already creating a lot of hype. Questions are being asked about how wise it is a move for Google Analytics, with some even suggesting that it will bring about its downfall. The implication is that this is a gesture of good faith by Google based on the criticism they have received recently about their approach to privacy highlighted with the launch of Google Buzz.
Right now the analysis on the opt-out tool is a little thin and the sensationalism is rather, well thick. The main fear is that many users will install this tool when it becomes available and simply opt-out of stats and disappear off the tracking radar, and where this is potentially true, the idea that this will actually happen is pretty far-fetched. It also represents a kind of old-world thinking about Web Analytics that doesn’t stretch beyond unique visits, visits and pageviews.
As much as I resent seeing visits drop at any stage, Web Analytics is not about tracking the individual or simply monitoring the stats, it’s about identifying trends and actionable data, and developing strategies to act on that data. In fact a lot of the data you see in Analytics is based on a sample, this is most common when you access custom reports.
Huge number crunching is required to generate pivoted data, and in order to do so more rapidly Google will grab samples of data to represent a larger segment. This action doesn’t compromise tracking, in fact it expedites it allowing us to view our data from more angles more rapidly.
It’s also worth pointing out that Google isn’t the first to do this, similar tools exist for Coremetrics and Omniture’s SiteCatalyst. We also already have a segment of users who turn off cookies in their browsers, effectively disabling all cookie-based tracking. Complex calculations between log files and cookie trackers can give you a reasonable estimate on the size of this loss, and no doubt if you’re worried about the loss you’ll be researching that methodology right now.
So where this opt-out tool may cause us to loose a segment of users, which is never a good thing, we will probably not loose the insight Google gives us into user trends and segments.
- None
Nice worded article Antonio
Its important to bear in mind that it is the website owner that conducts the tracking - Google is simply the tool used to facilitate this. In the same way the driver of a car is responsible for his/her actions when driving - not the car manufacturer.
If visitors loose trust in website owners to the point that they no longer wish to be tracked, then so be it.
Google has pushed hard to protect privacy with GA’s approach on “aggregate and anonymous” data reporting. This stance has been to G’s detriment in some respects with many an “industry analyst” and competitor sneering at that fact - as if it was some kind of technical limitation.
Also, website visitors want to control their privacy - regardless of geographics or culture. Pernicious techniques such as the use of tracking by stealth - using Flash shared objects - has removed that control.
In my view the combined effect of tracking individuals and using stealth techniques has severely damaged the “trust factor” visitors want. By association, it’s damaged ALL vendors in the WA industry.
Whether that damage has, or will, reach a critical mass to the point where web analytics numbers become a finger in the air guestimate, is yet to be seen.
What can be done?
—————
Google’s approach, as is Yahoo’s, is to put the control of tracking in the hands of the end user when Yahoo/GA is being used. This has to be a good thing. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if such a measure is adopted as data-protection law in many countries.
Its also the responsibility of us - as practitioners, vendor owners, bloggers and WAA members to promote best practice for data collection and management. I would love to see a code of conduct on this from the WAA as a condition of membership…
As an aside - a further thinking from Google on this could be to stiffle the propoganda from the China “google-gate” fall out i.e. that Google operates in the same way China does by deploying tools to monitor user activity on the web. Clearly these are two very different things, but to the layman its easy to think that China has a point!
Best regards, Brian Clifton
Author, Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics
(Report abuse)