Datalicious Blog - Data Driven Marketing

Another blow for web analytics: Google Analytics opt-out browser plug-ins now available in beta

It's been announced for a while but now it's actually possible, Google Analytics has just released the beta browser plug-ins that will make it possible for people to opt-out of Google Analytics tracking.  
The opt-out provides users with a choice of whether information about website visits is collected by Google Analytics. The add-on stops data from being sent from your computer when you visit websites that use Google Analytics Javascript (ga.js) to track usage. The beta version of the opt-out that we are releasing today is available for Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome.
Read the official blog post here (and download the plug-in if you must, argh).
http://analytics.blogspot.com/2010/05/greater-choice-and-transparency-for.html
 
Or check out our earlier posts on privacy including how to track visitors without cookies.

Big blow for web analytics: Google search is going secure and along the way hiding all referrer data

Google search is currently in the process of beta testing a secure search, check it out yourself at https://www.google.com.
 
Even though this might be commendable from a privacy perspective, the move could potentially have devastating effects for all search marketers and online analysts. Turning the normal Google search results into secure pages will essentially hide all usage information including the referrer string which contains data on the used search term. So if you would like to know what keywords are driving your business, you're out of luck. For all secure searches, standard analytics software packages will no longer be able to see the what domain referred the visitor (i.e. search engine) and what search term was used (see screen shots below).
 
It's rumoured that China may be part of the motivation for the switch as this will prevent filtering of certain keyword searches as well as the ability to packet sniff the usage of Google. The switch hasn't rolled out in Hong Kong yet, but you can safely assume it won't be too far away!
 
For more information check out the following Google and Wired articles.

Tracking unique visitor without cookies by analysing browser configurations with over 84% accuracy

For all of you online analysts out there that are scared of cookie deletion rates, private browsing modes and increasingly restrictive privacy laws, there's hope!

The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) has an interesting project called Panopticlick that determines uniqueness of visitors without cookies by analysing the exact browser configuration of a person (i.e. version, fonts, plug-ins, etc). I just did the Panopticlick online browser uniqueness test and it seems that my browser configuration was unique among the so far tested 993,912 people. Go do the test now and help these guys increase their sample size.

EFF found that 84% of the configuration combinations were unique and identifiable, creating unique and identifiable browser "fingerprints." Browsers with Adobe Flash or Java plug-ins installed were 94% unique and trackable.
 
Of course the whole thing falls down if people use more than one browser or multiple computers and I'm one of these people (I'm actually running Safari, Chrome and Firefox at the same time sometimes which is sad, I know). Anyway, still a great idea if you ask me so check out the actual research paper below if you want to find out more or read the official press release.

(download)

Study and poll: Privacy regulations on behavioural targeting won't help consumers but harm companies

There's a new study from the think tank Technology Policy Institute which concludes that new online privacy measures won't help consumers but hinder online companies. 

"Regulation should be undertaken only if a market is not functioning properly and if the benefits of new measures outweigh their costs," states the 56-page report, "In Defense of Data." "Our analysis suggests that proposals to restrict the amount of information available would not yield net benefits for consumers." 

The paper pretty much reiterates known statements from a decade ago but it's a good summary anyway. Have a read and please comment on this post or at least participate in the poll, would love to know what you think about behavioural targeting online. 

(download)

Clickz.com: Only very few Google users are opting out of behavioral Targeting

Looks like marketers are getting worked up about behavioural targeting without reason but Google could probably do a better job at promoting their opt-out service and raising awareness about the option as well.

Nine months ago, when Google first introduced behavioral ad targeting, it also rolled out an ad preferences manager. The page allows Web site visitors to edit their advertising interest categories -- for instance confirm an interest in cars or entertainment -- or to opt out of behavioral targeting altogether.

As it turns out, relatively few users visit the page, and among those who do only a small fraction opt out, according to Google. The finding suggests that those who seek out the page are predominantly comfortable with Google's behavioral ad practices.

"A good percentage of users are saying they'd rather control [behavioral targeting] than opt out," said Wong.

A rough calculation suggests that at the most, about 6,600 of Google's users are opting out of ad targeting per week. The figure is based on a generous estimate that the site captures 99,000 visitors on an average week -- the most possible if the site is indeed capturing tens of thousands yet not more than 100,000 visitors, as Google indicated to ClickZ.

Under this estimate: 6,600 (number of users opting out) x 4 = 26,400 (number of users editing preferences) x 10 = 66,000 (number of users taking no action). The sum of those three is 99,000 -- again, the maximum number of weekly visitors to page, according to Google.

Read the original article here
http://www.clickz.com/3635881

Google Ad Preferences lets you control your Google cookie profile

Follow the below link to add or delete interests to your Google profile so you only see ads that are relevant to you. Why is not every publisher or online retailer offering something similar? The technology certainly is not rocket science and aside from increasing trust with customers by being open about profiling and putting them in control it has also the potential to significantly increase response and conversion rates!

http://www.google.com/ads/preferences/

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