[Foundation-l] Google Analytics test

[Brian McNeil]

This was dropped like a hot potato on Wikinews. You - as the analytics
client - may not get the same level of detail as CheckUser. However Google
do.


Brian.
-----Original Message-----
From: foundation-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org
[mailto:foundation-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Andrew
Whitworth
Sent: 02 October 2007 18:27
To: foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: [Foundation-l] Google Analytics test


Many people are probably aware now that i've started a test of the Google
Analytics page counter on en.wikibooks. I hear that people are running a
similar kind of test on en.wikinews. Currently, these programs are opt-in:
only registered users are using these scripts, and it involves manually
adding them to the personal monobook files. The information received so far
has been fantastic: counts of page hits, click patterns, information about
entry points that we can use to improve the welcome for new visitions, etc.
However this test has also raised a few concerns. Some concerns I would like
to address, others I would like to get input from the foundation about.

1) First and foremost is the issue of privacy. The information that google
analytics collects is a step above what is typically available to regular
users, but not quite as detailed as CU data. Some information, such as
geographical area and the ISP of a user is aggregated, but it is not
attached in any way to a user's screenname. That is, without a priori
knowledge about the user, it is impossible to attach a particular username
to a particular ISP, geographical location, or any other piece of collected
data. I am currently inspecting the google analytics code looking for a way
to suppress the collection of ISP or geographical information, but havent
found a way yet.

1a) Ancillary to the idea of privacy is the issue that the analytics code
should probably remain opt-in. Many users are conscious of privacy and
security issues, and they shouldnt be forced to decide between participating
in a tracking program or not visiting wikibooks at all. I've proposed a
solution that unregistered users could be tracked by default (testing
wgUserName == null), but registered users would need to opt-in explicitly.
After all, I feel that information about our readers is far more important
then the same information about our editors.

1b) Another related idea is that individual books could be tracked for
readership patterns, while the whole remainder of the wikibooks project
could remain script-free. Notification templates could be used to indicate
which books the scripts were active on. A book could be tracked for a month
or so at a time. We could track a handful of books at once, and then change
which books we track on a regular basis.

2) Second is the issue of server load. Running the script now currently
involves an additional javascript page access per user. However, the
javascript files can be cached. The script runs in javascript and performs
interactions with the google analytics website, but does not transact with
the WMF servers. I believe that server load for us should be minimal (but I
want confirmation about this from the techs)

3) Log files are only available by default to the google account holder
(myself) and other people that are specifically added by myself to the
profile. If we keep the access list very restrictive, we dont need to worry
about sensitive data from becoming public. However, we do run the risk of
giving users with access "power", which is a common fear. If we were to set
up accounts on behalf of the project or the WMF (as opposed to personal
accounts), we could negate this issue entirely.

I'm looking for as much input on this issue as I can get. I'm not planning
to make any changes to any javascript for the forseeable future, till the
concerns are ironed out. 

--Andrew Whitworth


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