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Does my accepting Google's new privacy policy allow them to link information possibly gained via Google Analytics (using their ubiquitous cookies like _utma, _u

by figure8 15y ago

Does my accepting Google's new privacy policy allow them to link information possibly gained via Google Analytics (using their ubiquitous cookies like _utma, _utmb, _utmz) to my other Google product activities?

tonfa 15y ago
I don't think so, as far as I understand analytics, there is nothing to link with other Google products since it only uses first party cookies. http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/concepts/gaConceptsOverview.html http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/concepts/gaConcep... On a side note, the doubleclick cookie is explicitly excluded from linking without explicit consent: > We will not combine DoubleClick cookie information with personally identifiable information unless we have your opt-in consent.
- figure8 15y ago
  Thanks. This was helpful. In theory, I see your point about Google not having direct access to a site's first party cookies, but Google is clever. If you monitor the requested resources when you visit any site with those cookies, you'll notice a request to http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif? followed by parameters sending the values of those cookies to Google. So, they are tracking said cookies.
  - figure8 15y ago
    Furthermore, based on a quick estimate based on my current Firefox cookies, Google is (through Google Analytics) aware of 80%-90% of my browsing activity.
    - tonfa 15y ago
      But the cookie is per analytics domain, right? And not directly linked to other google cookies. So I think Analytics "sees" 80% of your browsing but it's multiple fragments, each going to different analytics domains. It's never seen as a single user.
      - figure8 15y ago
        Hmm. Thanks for your help; I'm sorry if I'm not understanding. Can't Google make certain (admittedly imperfect) inferences based on seeing the same IP address visit gmail.com, then AllThingsD.com, then CA.gov, etc? (All of which use Google Analytics) It doesn't take rocket science to place a high probability that the the IP address that visited gmail is also me across all those domains.
        tonfa 15y ago
        It's not because something is technically possible that it should (or can) be done. Why go through all the pain of setting analytics such that: it uses per analytics domain first party cookie, serves the javascript and the tracking gif on google-analytics.com (no google.com cookies are transmitted), but they would then try to reconstruct user behaviour based on IPs? That would be quite deceptive (and might not allowed by the FTC and the privacy policy). And they can already do global tracking with the doubleclick cookie. But it is explicitly not allowed to link it with other data without consent. Edit: by the way, thanks for your questions, I never really digged into this and also at first assumed they would have access to a lot more information. But analytics is actually pretty well designed.

by figure8 15y ago

tonfa 15y ago

I don't think so, as far as I understand analytics, there is nothing to link with other Google products since it only uses first party cookies. http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/concepts/gaConceptsOverview.html http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/concepts/gaConcep... On a side note, the doubleclick cookie is explicitly excluded from linking without explicit consent: > We will not combine DoubleClick cookie information with personally identifiable information unless we have your opt-in consent.

figure8 15y ago
Thanks. This was helpful. In theory, I see your point about Google not having direct access to a site's first party cookies, but Google is clever. If you monitor the requested resources when you visit any site with those cookies, you'll notice a request to http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif? followed by parameters sending the values of those cookies to Google. So, they are tracking said cookies.
- figure8 15y ago
  Furthermore, based on a quick estimate based on my current Firefox cookies, Google is (through Google Analytics) aware of 80%-90% of my browsing activity.
  - tonfa 15y ago
    But the cookie is per analytics domain, right? And not directly linked to other google cookies. So I think Analytics "sees" 80% of your browsing but it's multiple fragments, each going to different analytics domains. It's never seen as a single user.
    - figure8 15y ago
      Hmm. Thanks for your help; I'm sorry if I'm not understanding. Can't Google make certain (admittedly imperfect) inferences based on seeing the same IP address visit gmail.com, then AllThingsD.com, then CA.gov, etc? (All of which use Google Analytics) It doesn't take rocket science to place a high probability that the the IP address that visited gmail is also me across all those domains.
      - tonfa 15y ago
        It's not because something is technically possible that it should (or can) be done. Why go through all the pain of setting analytics such that: it uses per analytics domain first party cookie, serves the javascript and the tracking gif on google-analytics.com (no google.com cookies are transmitted), but they would then try to reconstruct user behaviour based on IPs? That would be quite deceptive (and might not allowed by the FTC and the privacy policy). And they can already do global tracking with the doubleclick cookie. But it is explicitly not allowed to link it with other data without consent. Edit: by the way, thanks for your questions, I never really digged into this and also at first assumed they would have access to a lot more information. But analytics is actually pretty well designed.