![\"Online](\"https:\/\/static.gosquared.com\/images\/liquidicity\/18_06_20_onlinetracking_01\/18_06_20_onlinetracking_01@2x.jpg\"\/)
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The discussion around online tracking is the most ubiquitous it has ever been.<\/p>\n
It feels like yesterday, but back in 2015 we were talking about the impending changes that \u201cContent Blockers<\/a>\u201d would invoke on the world as Apple introduced them to Safari on iOS to help give consumers more control over their privacy and experience on the web.<\/p>\n A lot has changed since 2015, and the topic of privacy, data ownership, and data protection is on the minds of the public like never before.<\/p>\n Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s appearance in front of congress, the dawn of GDPR, and companies like Apple touting privacy as a key differentiator, the conversation previously reserved for online privacy advocates has become a mainstream topic.<\/p>\n The web is now embedded into everyone\u2019s lives so deeply, that there is no \u201conline\u201d and \u201coffline\u201d \u2013 we\u2019re always online when our phones are with us, connected to the web, 24\/7, with some of our most precious information living in the cloud.<\/p>\n The increased awareness of how companies use our data is a great thing, but we still have a long way to go. Recent events appear to have worried consumers to the point where the understanding generally seems to be that all online tracking is categorically bad.<\/p>\n We don\u2019t think all online tracking is bad \u2013 there are some really creepy, dishonest ways of using customer data, and there are ways to use customer data to deliver a fantastic experience to customers, better deals, and better products.<\/p>\n It may be obvious to some, but not all online tracking is equal \u2013 here\u2019s a quick outline of some of the key categories we see most frequently.<\/p>\n Cross-site tracking is at the heart of a lot of the concerns around online tracking and data privacy. If one party can understand what you\u2019re doing across multiple sites and entities, they can build up a dramatically better picture of who you are.<\/p>\n On-site tracking, on the other hand, is an understanding of your journey and behaviour on one site, unique to that one business you\u2019re interacting with. On-site tracking is generally much more widely accepted as being a good thing for the business to understand their customers better, but is often bundled into the \u201cbad\u201d category in this debate.<\/p>\n Web analytics help businesses to understand the volume of visits, traffic sources and the popularity of online content by tracking your activity on a specific website.<\/p>\n Examples of analytics tools:<\/p>\n * Most analytics tools are isolated by company \u2013 so when you\u2019re being tracked on one website, that can\u2019t be tied to your activity on any other website. Analytics tools owned by large advertisers, like Google Analytics and Facebook\u2019s analytics tools are not as clear cut.<\/p>\n Customer services tools such as live chat software are used so businesses and customers can talk to each other. Information such as the contents of messages, but also some browsing data is likely shared with the business when you use customer service software.<\/p>\n Examples of customer service tools:<\/p>\n Tracking for advertising allows companies to remind you of their offering on other platforms and websites with relevant ads, and measure when you arrived on their website because of ads.<\/p>\n Tracking for advertising is perhaps the most controversial of all online tracking \u2013 as it can taken to the extreme to directly influence customer behaviour, and build a picture of you behind the scenes without your consent.<\/p>\n Examples of advertising services:<\/p>\n A bunch of services offer a primary service to websites, but also perform some level of cross-site tracking under-the-hood. These are providing value, but the end-user often doesn\u2019t realise how the data they collect is being used.<\/p>\n A few examples:<\/p>\n Regardless of how many times Facebook touts \u201cwe don\u2019t sell your data\u201d, Facebook at the very least use<\/em> your data to sell their service to advertisers.<\/p>\n Just like any other old-school media company sells your time and attention to advertisers, irrespective of being online or offline, it\u2019s how they are able to produce the content and services that we\u2019re so willing to consume.<\/p>\n Just like TV, radio, and outdoor use tracking to measure the audience they have to offer advertisers, online publishers need some kind of online tracking to quantify this too. <\/p>\n Where this starts to feel invasive is when the tracking starts to operate outside of its expected domain. If your radio was tracking the TV show you were watching, or the billboard you drove past was tracking what radio station you were listening to in your car.<\/p>\n So when one application or website appears to be aware of your activity outside of its own domain, that\u2019s when many people sense the creepy factor.<\/p>\n By definition, most ecommerce businesses rely primarily on their website to generate revenue. They likely haven\u2019t invested in a brick-and-mortar store, and the low costs of running a website are key to them having a built a business in the first place.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re running an ecommerce business without any analytics or tracking in place, you\u2019re effectively blind to what is happening within the store.<\/p>\n As a consumer, expecting an online store not to track you when you\u2019re in their store is the equivalent of asking them to hide in the back of their brick and mortar store before you come in.<\/p>\n The right level of customer understanding can ultimately be beneficial to everyone involved to provide immediately helpful customer service, and to continuously improve the store in the long-run.<\/p>\n If an ecommerce store can use tracking within their domain to identify their most viewed products, it can help them with their marketing and inventory decisions. They can then make potential customers informed about the the products they\u2019re after and make sure they\u2019re available when they want them.<\/p>\n Importantly, all of these things can help businesses sell more stuff and grow, and consumers get a better experience.<\/p>\n Hopefully it\u2019s becoming clearer that online \u201ctracking\u201d isn\u2019t all bad. But it seems the conversation needs to move forward to a place where we understand the tradeoffs of data gathering and customer experience.<\/p>\n Perhaps the word \u201ctracking\u201d itself is part of the problem \u2013 \u201ctracking\u201d isn\u2019t a friendly word in any context. Very few businesses seem to be using online tracking without the intention of using the data collected for helpful and beneficial purposes. It\u2019s really all about understand customers better to give them a better experience, and a better price.<\/p>\n Perhaps \u201conline understanding\u201d is a better phrase to go with for the future \u2013 one that doesn\u2019t trigger such negative connotations in the minds of consumers.<\/p>\n We may be slightly biased, but we strongly believe in looking after your customer data, and so \u2013 whatever tools you use \u2013 here\u2019s a couple of things to look out for:<\/p>\nWhy is online privacy and tracking such a big deal right now?<\/h2>\n
![\"Mark](\"https:\/\/static.gosquared.com\/images\/liquidicity\/18_06_20_onlinetracking_01\/18_06_20_onlinetracking_02@2x.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nDifferent types of online tracking<\/h2>\n
On-site vs cross-site tracking<\/h3>\n
Analytics<\/h3>\n
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Customer service<\/h3>\n
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Advertising<\/h3>\n
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Tracking behind the scenes<\/h3>\n
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The cost of a free service<\/h2>\n
![\"Is](\"https:\/\/static.gosquared.com\/images\/liquidicity\/18_06_20_onlinetracking_01\/18_06_20_onlinetracking_03@2x.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nWhy businesses and customers benefit from tracking online behaviour<\/h2>\n
How ecommerce benefits from online tracking<\/h3>\n
Is \u201ctracking\u201d the right word?<\/h2>\n
What to look for as a business when choosing your tools<\/h2>\n
![\"download](\"https:\/\/static.gosquared.com\/images\/liquidicity\/19_05_23_Analytics\/2x\/19_05_23_download_guide@2x.jpg\")
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