Cookies - Never a Stale Discussion

The Obama Administration, via the Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP), has been reviewing the cookie policy for Federal websites, inviting discusison on the OSTP Blog.

The OSTP's July 24 post titled Federal Websites: Cookie Policy invited comments on the policy, and OSTP has posted a follow-up On Cookies on August 11.

Both posts and the lengthy comments are a must-read as they provide insight into the complexity of the implementation of this change and the emotion surrounding this issue.

I agree with the points by Alex Langshur, Web Analytics Association (WAA*), that the 3-tier system tying cookie deployment to type of site will nto be effective and that clear basic operating principles are lacking. (This is why there continue to be no-brainer security breaches, like leaving account files unshredded in a back alley garbage pickup).

Ann Poritzky and Sue Feldman of the Federal Web Managers Council and WAA are right on, with their comment"...We think if the “rules” of use for session and persistent cookies are clearly defined, there should be no need to get additional sign-offs or waivers which in the past have been nearly impossible for Federal agencies to obtain..."

Perhaps some "thou shalt" and "thou shalt not" rules would be helpful to educate Federal webmasters as to what is safe and respectful cookie use and what is not:

• Thou shalt only view aggregated visit and visitor data
• Thou shalt aggregate a minimum of N visitors per analysis segment
• Thou shalt not use a cookie to drill into an individual visitor's IP, city, domain and cross-correlate the content they have accessed
• Thou shalt not store Personally Identifiable Information (PII) in a cookie
  etc...

Education is key.

Here's an example clearly demonstrating the need for education, and why people do need to be concerned about rules of use for cookies. It's not the technology, but the user of the technology misusing the technology:

• I recently downloaded a white paper from a B2B website. This site required repeated entry of my contact info for subsequent white papers, for the same session. Very annoying. So, curious to see if there weren't any cookies, I looked at cookies. And there were cookies. Four with my email, first name, last name and download.

This supports Larry Freed (Foresee Results) comment on the OSTP blog: "... As with most technologies there is proper use and there is misuse. Examples of misues should not lead us to the conclusion to restrict the use of the technology, but rather set standards, policies and guidelines across the federal government websites that insure the proper use of the technologies."

Your thoughts?

June Li
ClickInsight.ca

* I'm a member of the Web Analytics Association.

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eMetrics Washington: Don't Wait Too Long to Sign Up

Very excited that eMetrics Washington is coming up on October 19-23, 2009.

Don't wait too long to register. The Early Bird rates expire on Sept. 4 (get an additional discount using the promo code below).

Once again, the agenda is jammed packed with analytics practitioners from:

• Dell (Leveraging Analytics Globally as a Key Strategic Business Driver at Dell)
• Monster (Measuring and Managing Analytics Globally: What's Works and What Doesn't)
• Elsevier Publishing (Web Analytics for Non-Marketers: Extending Data's Reach and Impact)
• Nokia (Going Mobile)
• National Geographic (Finding the Value of Social Media on the Map)

...and more. Browse the full agenda.

It's not just the presentations that are value-packed but the discussions at breakfast, lunch, dinner, receptions, clinics and in the tradeshow. 93% of responding attendees rated the last eMetrics summit very good/excellent. Read the attendee feedback. And if you have questions to ask analytics vendors, they're here, all in one location.

The early bird registration expires on September 4, 2009.

• Before you register, readers, please write down this special discount promo code: JUNELIDC09.
  It'll reduce your 3-day conference pass fee by 15%, even after Early Bird rates are over.
  
  
• Bring the team - If more than one attend from the same organization, each additional attendee will receive an additional $200 off the conference fee.

This will be my 9th eMetrics Summit. Hope to see you there.

June Li
ClickInsight.ca

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