How do you measure your web traffic? And what about privacy for users?

What tools do you use to measure your site statistics and traffic? Do you use a third-party tool or do you rely on whatever integrated tool your web host offers?

If you've implemented a third-party tool like Google Analytics or even use Webalizer, did you give much consideration to user privacy or letting users know what information is being tracked and shared in a privacy policy or announcement?

Share your tips on site traffic and web analytics tools as well as your experiences with balancing user privacy with your needs to measure traffic and effectiveness of your online communications.

If you're interested in learning more about how to measure site traffic on your website as well as how to protect users' privacy in the process, check out our recently published Site Statistics and User Privacy for Nonprofit Websites, written by my colleage (and fellow forum participant) Elliot Harmon.

In the article, he explains what sorts of tools are out there, how they work, and gives some examples of how to message your site traffic collecting to your users, so they understand their privacy rights and how to adjust things if they'd prefer not to be included in tracking.

Check it out and let us know what tools you use in this thread. Have you had any upset users due to how you measure traffic? How did you handle that?

Thanks, Becky.

It's a big issue with a lot of strong feelings on all sides. Our hope with this article is not that it will answer every possible question, but that it at least equip nonprofits with a framework and vocabulary for talking about the issues.

I blogged on Wednesday about how new legislation might be making some big changes to how websites can use cookies. I also wanted to direct people to this excellent post by Aspen Baker on how Internet privacy issues impact nonprofits. In the Virus Vaccination and Computer Security forum, Megan has started a discussion about privacy on social networking sites.

Happy Halloween,
Elliot

Becky,

I use Woopra on my site because it has reports that are easy to read AND gives you real time stats. I've also use Google Analytics. The activity of my visitors is only seen by me (and Google or Woopra). That said, I think it's really up to the visitor to educate themselves about how much data can be collected about them when they visit web-sites. Unless I'm missing something (or not understanding your question), sites don't usually publish info about what information is being tracked on their site.

In terms of tips, I would recommend using either Woopra or Google in addition to your site's analytics.

Hope this helps,

John

Thanks John.

Check out the article for more context on Becky's lead-in questions. Although it's certainly possible to overstate the negative, I think it's definitely worth considering the privacy issues before installing Google Analytics. Yes, privacy decisions are ultimately in the hands of the user, but nonprofits and libraries are often in a position to make those decisions on behalf of our constituents, and that's a responsibility we should take seriously.

In the article, we take the position that whatever you decide, you should communicate it to site users clearly and empower them to opt out.

Cheers,
Elliot

I use a multitude of tools to measure site traffic, with Google Analytics and Woopra being two of them.

Generally speaking I'm not really concerned about privacy issues in the context of using these tools.  But it's important to note that I represent one person (myself) and not an organization.  That said, in an effort to be transparent to users what I've started doing with sites I look after is to make amendments to their Privacy Policy -- specifically stating that Google Analytics is being used on the site to collect information about visitors to the site.  I go on to state in the privacy statement that when a visitor comes to the site, information is collected about them by these third-party tools for the purpose of traffic measurement and site optimization.  I have a section in it called "Types of Information Collected" in which all this is described in some detail, including explanations for several key terms such as IP addresses, cookies, and so on.

Get to know the tool you're using and read up on its own privacy policy.  You should understand common basic concepts such as "cookies" and "IP address", and how these things are used in the context of your tool.

If you're using Google Analytics or any other third-party web measurement tool for that matter, I believe that as an organization you need to familiarize yourself on how the provider is collecting and using your site's traffic data.  Moreover, you want to make it clear to your visitors via your privacy statement that you're making use of a third-party provider to collect information about their visits.

Smart to have a privacy policy if you don't have one already.

Yann

Google Analytics with a PP does the trick.

I used Clicktale a few times and found it to be useful for certain types of websites. We used a more robust PP when utilizing Clicktale due to the nature of the session tracking/recording. Great for ecommerce sites though.