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Securing Private Analytics Data To Mitigate The Risks
By Cecily Robyn Lough
Expert Author
Article Date: 2010-01-05
With both large real and hidden opportunity costs associated with evaluating, implementing, and learning the quirks of a new analytics tool, it only makes sense to ensure that the tool one chooses will be able to keep pace with one´s future requirements. So in order to evaluate tools correctly people need to be aware of the changes that are occurring in the online world as this will influence what data will be important to collect and leverage in the future.
In this article I wanted to outline some of the top trends that are impacting the online marketing world so that when someone makes an analytics tool evaluation they are creating a framework for the future.
Part 4 of Framing the Future: Data Privacy Demands more Diligence
As personalization becomes more the norm, a lot more focus is also going to be given to the trade-off between personalization and data privacy in the near future. As each step in bringing together the open standard web creates easier opportunities for organizations to link together (and perhaps abuse) personal information, there might be more incidents like the one that happened to Google Document users last March 7th. On that day Google inadvertently shared spreadsheet information with peoples´ contacts who were never granted permission to see them. Google admitted that "we've identified and fixed a bug which may have caused you to share some of your documents without your knowledge," but these types of bugs could have serious repercussions for the people affected and for legal compliance rules.
In fact, the data privacy laws are also changing in response to the technology. In Germany, there has been a lot of discussion lately on whether or not using Google analytics is even legal since tracking and storing an IP address is considered holding onto personally identifiable information, which is not allowed by German law.
Google´s terms of service do state that "Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google." However, according to paragraph 15 "Modifications of the rules" "Google reserves the right to change the terms and conditions of this agreement at any time [...] [...] [...assuming that the changes taken into account [by Google] are reasonable for you."
In sum, Google is sitting on a treasure trove of linked data that they could potentially use in the future in ways that might violate data privacy laws. A German lawyer has even said that it is possible that the "penalties could amount up to €50,000 (about $75,000) per website that uses Google Analytics to keep track of its visitors' usage patterns." So it will be quite interesting to see how this will play out in the next couple of years.
The expectation for Germany is that more conservative companies may start to require that their analytics providers have a TüV certificate, which is similar to a data privacy seal of approval. This will require that the company uses only anonymous IP addresses, that they are also offering an opt-out cookie capability, and that they only use servers that are based in Germany. At the minimum, more companies may also start to require that they are the rightful owners to their own analytics data, so that they are mitigating the risk involved with passing the data through a 3rd party tool and can at any point get all of their data returned upon request. Thus, any company should probably include in their analytics evaluation process both the question of who owns their data and how compliant their current tool is with the changing legal landscape.
This is Part 4: Data Privacy Demands more Diligence, of a Five Part Series; See also Part 1: Data Trumps Everything, Part 2: The Real Time Web Reality, Part 3: Data Filtering and Visualization Capabilities Matter, and tomorrow Part 5: Free Redefines the Market.
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About the Author:
Cecily Robyn Lough has over 15 years experience in pulling actionable insights from online marketing data. She is currently Director of International Sales at Webtrekk GmbH, a leading Web Analytics company based in Berlin, Germany. Please contact her through LinkedIn or at cecilyspeaks@gmail.com.
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