When Internet Explorer 8 is released for general availability later this year, several privacy improvements will have been added, including the option to stop client-side tracking as used by Google Analytics. This means that those relying on Google Analytics for statistics, will see even less reliable numbers than today, potentially rendering the product obsolete.
To quote from the list of privacy improvements in IE8:
InPrivate Blocking keeps a record of third-party items. When you choose to browse with InPrivate, IE automatically blocks sites that have “seen” you across more than ten sites.
It will take a while for IE8 to gain widespread adoption, but when it does gain foothold, it seems likely that the privacy features will become popular. While press and analysts have so far labeled the improvements as “porn mode“, it has received much less attention that IE8 includes the option to effectively stop client-side tracking.
Earlier today I spoke with web analytics guru Phil Kemelor about the issue. Phil is the lead analyst on the CMS Watch Web Analytics Report and author of the The Executive’s Guide to Web Site Measurement and Testing and we are fortunate that he has become a regular speaker at our conferences. Phil confirmed that “private browsing” will cause an increasing issue in the future for users of Google Analytics. He added that data accuracy is already a problem, and cautioned that the data and charts are best used for finding trends, rather than getting to an exact count.
In addition, Phil said that he did not expect enterprises to exclusively return to log file analysis. Rather, a combination of approaches (e.g. JavaScript, cookies, application logs) is likely to be used, depending on type of site (e.g. e-commerce vs. content) and the internal audience.
Internet Explorer is by far the most dominant browser (see updated usage share on Wikipedia), but both Firefox and Chrome have similar built-in privacy features that will cause similar problems with Google Analytics.
While the impact here is 18 – 24 months out, those with high usage of Google AdWords may already want to start looking for alternatives or begin to lobby Google for a major update to how Google Analytics collects data.
J. Boye » Blog Archive » New browsers come with new issues February 14th, 2009 22:37
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