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How to track users for analytics in a privacy-first, cookie-less future

narrator.ai

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Re: How to track users for analytics in a privacy-first, cookie-less future

#41

Post by HWR_14 »

syrrim wrote: post #37
er4hn wrote: post #9

So the overall concept of "shove a tracker value into the URL and collate all interactions" makes sense - but how do you track if a user is sharing a URL? Let's say that I'm on a desktop browsing a shopping site. I'm on shopping.site/product/coolthing.html?tracker=12345. I share this with my friend on a mobile device because it looks like something of interest to them. Now how do you handle the other person having th…

Use the referer, is my guess. Whereas browsers are starting to limit the sharing of referers, I don't think there are any plans to limit first party referers. So as long as the referer is your domain, you know the user navigated from within the site. Otherwise, the user followed a link offsite, likely shared by a friend. You can then assign a different tracking id to them.

> Whereas browsers are starting to limit the sharing of referrers

AFAIK, they are starting to standardize the sharing of referrer. For most people, this is limiting the sharing. However, they used to have an easy to find GUI option to just opt out of referrers in general. That is no longer the case.

Re: How to track users for analytics in a privacy-first, cookie-less future

#42

Post by HWR_14 »

FridayoLeary wrote: post #24

Will privacy be the future? I feel browser tracking will simply become less relevant in the future. I can't explain why. I'm sure of one thing though: the government will know more about us.

The government barely knew enough about us to make a website that could connect people to healthcare. Forgive me for being more concerned about what Google can feed into DeepMind Person Predictor in 2026 to know about me.

Re: How to track users for analytics in a privacy-first, cookie-less future

#44

Post by AstralStorm »

xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #32
culturedsystems wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that you still need to get consent for the cookie in this case, as the cookie is being used for something which isn't strictly necessary to provide the service.

If the cookie is never used until a later date e.g. conversion, when the user clicks through an agreement, do you still need consent? Edit: I honestly have no idea, I haven't read the regulations and I'm curious if any experts know. Seems sleazy regardless!

What does it mean? Even a session cookie is used at a later date, e.g. 5 minutes later. The law does not specify minimum retention time.

Re: How to track users for analytics in a privacy-first, cookie-less future

#45

Post by AstralStorm »

slig wrote: post #38
zild3d wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found more often than not they can just be ignored?

Me too. If I ignore or decline, then the next pageview will show the same banner. It's nuts, but I guess it's new normal.

Then fight fire with fire. Remove the banner.

Ultimately, the site is not allowed to collect data without your consent, but many sites illegally set cookies or store your data in logs before you consent, or even if you decline. With cookies, it is easy to detect bad actors, but not so much with logging.

Re: How to track users for analytics in a privacy-first, cookie-less future

#46

Post by wdb »

culturedsystems wrote: post #31
bouzouk wrote: post #22

We do it a bit differently (French company). Since the only cookie that is endangered is the « third party cookie », it is very much ok to store anonymous session information in a first party cookie for all anonymous visitors. So we store page views and utm there, and capture this data in the datawarehouse when (and only when) there is a conversion. This is also working with returning visitors (who most likely kept t…

Note that you still need to get consent for the cookie in this case, as the cookie is being used for something which isn't strictly necessary to provide the service.

What if the cookie is also used for feature toggles?

Re: How to track users for analytics in a privacy-first, cookie-less future

#48

Post by haskellandchill »

How to... um no you don't you use APIs that have OAUTH type interactions for data sharing permissions with explicit user consent for everything. Just do it. It's the right thing, it's what people want, and it's a clean technical solution.

Re: How to track users for analytics in a privacy-first, cookie-less future

#49

Post by qxga »

wanderindev wrote: post #29
mjevans wrote: post #21

An International GDPR seems increasingly necessary. Stop trying to right size, hide prices, etc; just give straight good deals and sell good products at good prices.

How is a company supposed to determine what 'good' prices are though? Should they just be covering their costs? Should they just be covering their costs + x%? Sure they could base it off what the rest of the market is doing but where is the market establishing their prices? I don't disagree that price gouging occurs in many markets - and I agree that an international GDPR would be beneficial to people - but good pric…

Good prices are what consumers determine are good prices.

Sometimes that's razor-thin margins. Sometimes it lets you get away with high margins.

Re: How to track users for analytics in a privacy-first, cookie-less future

#50

Post by CogitoCogito »

culturedsystems wrote: post #31
bouzouk wrote: post #22

We do it a bit differently (French company). Since the only cookie that is endangered is the « third party cookie », it is very much ok to store anonymous session information in a first party cookie for all anonymous visitors. So we store page views and utm there, and capture this data in the datawarehouse when (and only when) there is a conversion. This is also working with returning visitors (who most likely kept t…

Note that you still need to get consent for the cookie in this case, as the cookie is being used for something which isn't strictly necessary to provide the service.

I think this is kind of interesting question actually. If this cookie is entirely separated from the rest of the experience (e.g. _never_ gets associated to a logged in cookie, or IP address, etc.), is it really tracking the user? It's more like tracking article association. I agree it's not strictly necessary to provide the service, but is it necessarily tracking users at all? Another similar approach would be to keep the clients IP address as a similar key, but in that case the IP address can often be used to (at least closely) identify the client, but if the UUID is randomly generated it's a bit different.

I mean my gut feeling is that you're correct, but I kind of wonder about this case.

edit: A cursory reading of this site makes me think you are correct:

https://www.privacypolicies.com/blog/eu-cookie-law/

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