DATA PRIVACY IN WEB ANALYTICS - An Empirical Study and Declaration Model of Data Collection on Websites

Darius Zumstein, Aleksandar Drobnjak, Andreas Meier

2011

Abstract

Web analytics has become a useful instrument for electronic business and website management to analyze and optimize website usage. However, different concerns arise in web analytics regarding the collection, storage and usage of web data. To maintain user confidence in websites, operators need to comply with privacy and to inform truthfully about data collection. One way to achieve transparency would be by means of informing users on the purpose, methods and processes of data collection taking place and on the subsequent analysis and use of such. Results of an empirical study conducted show that 16% of the Forbes 500 listed companies, do not declare their data collection practices at all. Moreover, 35% do not declare the usage of cookies and 61% do not declare the recording of IP addresses. Surprisingly, 91% of the websites do not name the web analytics system (provider) used to track web usage and user data. A large backlog exists regarding transparency of data collection in privacy policies, especially when Google Analytics is used. This paper demands more transparency in web analytics and proposes a declaration model with seven criteria for the evaluation of data collection on websites: type of data being collected, purpose of data collection, method of data collection as well as the technology and software used for data collection. In addition, websites should provide the right to access personal data and to deactivate data collection during visits.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Zumstein D., Drobnjak A. and Meier A. (2011). DATA PRIVACY IN WEB ANALYTICS - An Empirical Study and Declaration Model of Data Collection on Websites . In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 1: WEBIST, ISBN 978-989-8425-51-5, pages 466-472. DOI: 10.5220/0003301404660472

in Bibtex Style

@conference{webist11,
author={Darius Zumstein and Aleksandar Drobnjak and Andreas Meier},
title={DATA PRIVACY IN WEB ANALYTICS - An Empirical Study and Declaration Model of Data Collection on Websites},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 1: WEBIST,},
year={2011},
pages={466-472},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0003301404660472},
isbn={978-989-8425-51-5},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 1: WEBIST,
TI - DATA PRIVACY IN WEB ANALYTICS - An Empirical Study and Declaration Model of Data Collection on Websites
SN - 978-989-8425-51-5
AU - Zumstein D.
AU - Drobnjak A.
AU - Meier A.
PY - 2011
SP - 466
EP - 472
DO - 10.5220/0003301404660472