Comments on: The Controversy of Online Privacy

By: Ben

Ben — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 20:56:05 +0000

From an SEO perspective, I agree it is an uncomfortable situation to start seeing some of that precious user tracking data slip away. However it is what the market demands.

The average user enjoys the enhanced experience that tracking provides, but they are starting to realize the Google monster and other internet giants have a disturbing amount of information on them. This explains why subjects dealing with online privacy are plastered all over news headlines as of late.

Our very new company, Sgrouples is responding to the demands of the consumer by never tracking our user’s data. In the meantime, I believe the SEO industry will continue to adapt and evolve to user preferences, but soon we may need to go about things a little differently.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 09:03:27 +0000

Very interesting post.

It is clear that website analytics are harmless. However, with websites and browsers now adopting “Do Not Track” functionality it is becoming increasingly difficult to accurately measure website traffic.

There are tools such as Piwik (Self host) and eVisit Analyst http://www.evisitanalyst.com(externally hosted like GA) which allow for cookie-less analytics. These tools can help strike the balance between compliance and effective web management through accurate analytics.

Indeed, many public sector sites are now switching over to cookie-less technology. It will be interesting to see how this develops with even stricter privacy legislation on its way from the EU.

By: Jack

Jack — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 23:12:34 +0000

Nice post! Lots of good information.

Google is close for me.

Your demographics
We infer your age and gender based on the websites you’ve visited. You can remove or edit these at any time.
Age: 25-34
Gender: Male

By: Julie Joyce

Julie Joyce — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 11:41:18 +0000

They think I’m Age: 18-24
Gender: Male

Woot.

EXCELLENT post btw…especially the point about how this kind of tracking has been going on in many ways previously.

By: Barry Adams

Barry Adams — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 09:47:03 +0000

The only positive is that websites have a choice to comply with ‘Do Not Track’ or not. However third party web analytics like Google Analytics might build compliance in to their system, at which point self-hosted alternatives such as Piwik become much more attractive. I for one have absolutely zero moral and ethical hesitation to use web analytics, regardless of a user’s privacy demands.

By: Hugo

Hugo — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 08:35:12 +0000

I can’t agree more with you and I like the way you explain your vision.
I didn’t know about the “do not track” trick on IE 10. That’s not good news. The GG “not provided” is a real pain specially if you want to create nice reports to your customers showing the impact of the SEO per KW.
Moreover, I hope people will understand that without ads (and of course tracking) most of the free contents would disappear.

Are you sure you’re not a 65 + male ? GG is always right…always.