[Foundation-l] Wikipedia tracks user behaviour via third party companies

[Andrew Gray]

2009/6/4 Tim 'avatar' Bartel <wikipedia at computerkultur.org>:

> I think we should stop the current use of Google Analytics ASAP.

Indeed.

For the record, we've discussed Google Analytics before:

* in July 2007, for pms.wiki - nothing implemented, I think

* in October 2007, for en.wikibooks - implemented but then stopped. at
the same time, en.wikinews had implemented it and then stopped it
again; the Wikimania07 site also ran it for most of the year and then
had it taken out when discovered.

* in December 2007, for fi.wiki - implemented but then stopped

* in July 2008, for th.wiki - discovered and removed. a check then
found it on vls.wiki and th.wikisource; the discussion doesn't record
that these were removed, but checking the sites shows they were.

The vls one is interesting - it was removed by Drini in July, per the
foundation-l discussion, and only added back in at the end of April
2009... and there we get this problem.

So, yeah. Pretty solid consensus that this is something to avoid. If
we have some "explanatory notes" to go with the privacy policy
anywhere, it might be worth explicitly mentioning the use of external
logging services and Why Thou Shalt Not.

-- 
- Andrew Gray
  andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk