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• Revision 31219 : Pour compatibilité avec les recommandations des squelettes Z. Les classes ...

  31 août 2009, par rastapopoulos@… — Log

  Pour compatibilité avec les recommandations des squelettes Z.
  Les classes ne sont pas encore fixées, donc il vaut mieux ne pas les utiliser intensément. Mais je pense que cette structure couvre tous les cas et est lisible.
  Le but des classes est de ne pas imposer des balises particulières.

  Titre facultatif

  • Un truc

• Google Analytics Privacy Issues : Is It Really That Bad ?

  2 juin 2022, par Erin

  If you find yourself asking : “What’s the deal with Google Analytics privacy ?”, you probably have some second thoughts. 

  Your hunch is right. Google Analytics (GA) is a popular web analytics tool, but it’s far from being perfect when it comes to respecting users’ privacy. 

  This post helps you understand tremendous Google Analytics privacy concerns users, consumers and regulators expressed over the years.

  In this blog, we’ll cover :

  What Does Google Analytics Collect About Users ? 

  To understand Google Analytics privacy issues, you need to know how Google treats web users’ data. 

  By default, Google Analytics collects the following information : 

  • Session statistics — duration, page(s) viewed, etc. 
  • Referring website details — a link you came through or keyword used. 
  • Approximate geolocation — country, city. 
  • Browser and device information — mobile vs desktop, OS usage, etc. 

  Google obtains web analytics data about users via two means : an on-site Google Analytics tracking code and cookies.

  A cookie is a unique identifier (ID) assigned to each user visiting a web property. Each cookie stores two data items : unique user ID and website name. 

  With the help of cookies, web analytics solutions can recognise returning visitors and track their actions across the website(s).

  

  • First party cookies are generated by one website and collect user behaviour data from said website only. 
  • Third-party cookies are generated by a third-party website object (for example, an ad) and can track user behaviour data across multiple websites. 

  As it’s easy to imagine, third-party cookies are a goldmine for companies selling online ads. Essentially, they allow ad platforms to continue watching how the user navigates the web after clicking a certain link. 

  Yet, people have little clue as to which data they are sharing and how it is being used. Also, user consent to tracking across websites is only marginally guaranteed by existing Google Analytics controls. 

  Why Third-Party Cookie Data Collection By GA Is Problematic 

  Cookies can transmit personally identifiable information (PII) such as name, log in details, IP address, saved payment method and so on. Some of these details can end up with advertisers without consumers’ direct knowledge or consent.

  Regulatory frameworks such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) emerged as a response to uncontrolled user behaviour tracking.

  Under regulatory pressure, Big Tech companies had to adapt their data collection process.

  Apple was the first to implement by-default third-party blocking in the Safari browser. Then added a tracking consent mechanism for iPhone users starting from iOS 15.2 and later. 

  Google, too, said it would drop third-party cookie usage after The European Commission and UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched antitrust investigations into its activity. 

  To shake off the data watchdogs, Google released a Privacy Sandbox — a set of progressive tech, operational and compliance changes for ensuring greater consumer privacy. 

  Google’s biggest promise : deprecate third-party cookies usage for all web and mobile products. 

  Originally, Google promised to drop third-party cookies by 2022, but that didn’t happen. Instead, Google delayed cookie tracking depreciation for Chrome until the second half of 2023. 

  Why did they push back on this despite hefty fines from regulators ?

  Because online ads make Google a lot of money.

  In 2021, Alphabet Inc (parent company of Google), made $256.7 billion in revenue, of which $209.49 billion came from selling advertising. 

  Lax Google Analytics privacy enforcement — and its wide usage by website owners — help Google make those billions from collecting and selling user data. 

  How Google Uses Collected Google Analytics Data for Advertising 

  Over 28 million websites (or roughly 85% of the Internet) have Google Analytics tracking codes installed. 

  Even if one day we get a Google Analytics version without cookies, it still won’t address all the privacy concerns regulators and consumers have. 

  Over the years, Google has accumulated an extensive collection of user data. The company’s engineers used it to build state-of-the-art deep learning models, now employed to build advanced user profiles. 

  Deep learning is the process of training a machine to recognise data patterns. Then this “knowledge” is used to produce highly-accurate predictive insights. The more data you have for model training — the better its future accuracy will be. 

  Google has amassed huge deposits of data from its collection of products — GA, YouTube, Gmail, Google Docs and Google Maps among others. Now they are using this data to build a third-party cookies-less alternative mechanism for modelling people’s preferences, habits, lifestyles, etc. 

  Their latest model is called Google Topics. 

  This comes only after Google’s failed attempt to replace cookie-based training with Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) model. But the solution wasn’t offering enough user transparency and user controls among other issues.

  

  Google Topics promises to limit the granularity of data advertisers get about users. 

  But it’s still a web user surveillance method. With Google Topics, the company will continue collecting user data via Chrome (and likely other Google products) — and share it with advertisers. 

  Because as we said before : Google is in the business of profiting off consumers’ data. 

  Two Major Ways Google Takes Advantage of Customer Data

  Every bit of data Google collects across its ecosystem of products can be used in two ways :

  • For ad targeting and personalisation 
  • To improve Google’s products 

  The latter also helps the former. 

  Advanced Ad Personalisation and Targeting

  GA provides the company with ample data on users’ 

  • Recent and frequent searches 
  • Location history
  • Visited websites
  • Used apps 
  • Videos and ads viewed 
  • Personal data like age or gender 

  The company’s privacy policy explicitly states that :
  

  

  Google also admits to using collected data to “measure the effectiveness of advertising” and “personalise content and ads you see on Google.” 

  But there are no further elaborations on how exactly customers’ data is used — and what you can do to prevent it from being shared with third parties. 

  In some cases, Google also “forgets” to inform users about its in-product tracking.

  Journalists from CNBC and The New York Times independently concluded that Google monitors users’ Gmail activity. In particular, the company scans your inbox for recent purchases, trips, flights and bills notifications. 

  While Google says that this information isn’t sold to advertisers (directly), they still may use the “saved information about your orders in other Google services”. 

  Once again, this means you have little control or knowledge of subsequent data usage. 

  Improving Product Usability 

  Google has many “arms” to collect different data points — from user’s search history to frequently-travelled physical routes. 

  They also reserve the right to use these insights for improving existing products. 

  Here’s what it means : by combining different types of data points obtained from various products, Google can pierce a detailed picture of a person’s life. Even if such user profile data is anonymised, it is still alarmingly accurate. 

  Douglas Schmidt, a computer science researcher at Vanderbilt University, well summarised the matter : 

  “[Google’s] business model is to collect as much data about you as possible and cross-correlate it so they can try to link your online persona with your offline persona. This tracking is just absolutely essential to their business. ‘Surveillance capitalism’ is a perfect phrase for it.”

  Google Data Collection Obsession Is Backed Into Its Business Model 

  OK, but Google offers some privacy controls to users ? Yes. Google only sees and uses the information you voluntarily enter or permit them to access. 

  But as the Washington Post correspondent points out :

  “[Big Tech] companies get to set all the rules, as long as they run those rules by consumers in convoluted terms of service that even those capable of decoding the legalistic language rarely bother to read. Other mechanisms for notice and consent, such as opt-outs and opt-ins, create similar problems. Control for the consumer is mostly an illusion.”

  Google openly claims to be “one of many ad networks that personalise ads based on your activity online”. 

  The wrinkle is that they have more data than all other advertising networks (arguably combined). This helps Google sell high-precision targeting and contextually personalised ads for billions of dollars annually.

  Given that Google has stakes in so many products — it’s really hard to de-Google your business and minimise tracking and data collection from the company.
  

  They are also creating a monopoly on data collection and ownership. This fact makes regulators concerned. The 2021 antitrust lawsuit from the European Commission says : 

  “The formal investigation will notably examine whether Google is distorting competition by restricting access by third parties to user data for advertising purposes on websites and apps while reserving such data for its own use.”

  In other words : By using consumer data to its unfair advantage, Google allegedly shuts off competition.

  But that’s not the only matter worrying regulators and consumers alike. Over the years, Google also received numerous other lawsuits for breaching people’s privacy, over and over again. 

  Here’s a timeline : 

  • 2019 : UK citizens issued a class action suit against Google for imposing cookies to override users’ privacy settings in the Safari browser. 
  • 2020 : US citizens pushed for a $5 billion class-action suit for tracking their activity through browsers set in “private” mode.
  • 2022 : Another class-action lawsuit in the US for deceptive privacy controls and unconsented location data tracking by Google mobile apps. 
  • 2022 : Google reached a $100 million class-action settlement for breaching Illinois biometrics privacy laws in Google Photos. 

  Separately, Google has a very complex history with GDPR compliance. 

  How Google Analytics Contributes to the Web Privacy Problem 

  Google Analytics is the key puzzle piece that supports Google’s data-driven business model. 

  If Google was to release a privacy-focused Google Analytics alternative, it’d lose access to valuable web users’ data and a big portion of digital ad revenues. 

  Remember : Google collects more data than it shares with web analytics users and advertisers. But they keep a lot of it for personal usage — and keep looking for ways to share this intel with advertisers (in a way that keeps regulators off their tail).

  For Google Analytics to become truly ethical and privacy-focused, Google would need to change their entire revenue model — which is something they are unlikely to do.

  Where does this leave Google Analytics users ? 

  In a slippery territory. By proxy, companies using GA are complicit with Google’s shady data collection and usage practice. They become part of the problem.

  In fact, Google Analytics usage opens a business to two types of risks : 

  • Reputational. 77% of global consumers say that transparency around how data is collected and used is important to them when interacting with different brands. That’s why data breaches and data misuse by brands lead to major public outrages on social media and boycotts in some cases. 
  • Legal. EU regulators are on a continuous crusade against Google Analytics 4 (GA4) as it is in breach of GDPR. French and Austrian watchdogs ruled the “service” illegal. Since Google Analytics is not GDPR compliant, it opens any business using it to lawsuits (which is already happening).

  But there’s a way out.

  Choose a Privacy-Friendly Google Analytics Alternative 

  Google Analytics is a popular web analytics service, but not the only one available. You have alternatives such as Matomo. 

  Our guiding principle is : respecting privacy.

  Unlike Google Analytics, we leave data ownership 100% in users’ hands. Matomo lets you implement privacy-centred controls for user data collection.

  Plus, you can self-host Matomo On-Premise or choose Matomo Cloud with data securely stored in the EU and in compliance with GDPR.

  The best part ? You can try our ethical alternative to Google Analytics for free. No credit card required ! Start your free 21-day trial now. 

  21 day free trial. No credit card required.

  Your email address
  

  Your website address
  

  Your Analytics subdomain will be .matomo.cloud (change)

  Choose your analytics subdomain
  

  .matomo.cloud

  I hereby accept the terms and conditions and the data processing agreeement (DPA).

  
  Your information will be used to create an account on our cloud service. For more information please consult our privacy policy.
  
  

  » Start improving your websites now

  

• Google Analytics 4 (GA4) vs Universal Analytics (UA)

  24 janvier 2022, par Erin — Analytics Tips

  March 2022 Update : It’s official ! Google announced that Universal Analytics will no longer process any new data as of 1 July 2023. Google is now pushing Universal Analytics users to switch to the latest version of GA – Google Analytics 4. 

  Currently, Google Analytics 4 is unable to accept historical data from Universal Analytics. Users need to take action before July 2022, to ensure they have 12 months of data built up before the sunset of Universal Analytics

  So how do Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4 compare ? And what alternative options do you have ? Let’s dive in. 

  In this blog, we’ll cover :

  What is Google Analytics 4 ? 

  In October 2020, Google launched Google Analytics 4, a completely redesigned analytics platform. This follows on from the previous version known as Universal Analytics (or UA).

  Amongst its touted benefits, GA4 promises a completely new way to model data and even the ability to predict future revenue. 

  However, the reception of GA4 has been largely negative. In fact, some users from the digital marketing community have said that GA4 is awful, unusable and so bad it can bring you to tears.

  

  

  Google Analytics 4 vs Universal Analytics

  There are some pretty big differences between Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics but for this blog, we’ll cover the top three.

  1. Redesigned user interface (UI)

  GA4 features a completely redesigned UI to Universal Analytics’ popular interface. This dramatic change has left many users in confusion and fuelled some users to declare that “most of the time you are going round in circles to find what you’re looking for.”

  

  2. Event-based tracking

  Google Analytics 4 also brings with it a new data model which is purely event-based. This event-based model moves away from the typical “pageview” metric that underpins Universal Analytics.

  3. Machine learning insights

  Google Analytics 4 promises to “predict the future behavior of your users” with their machine-learning-powered predictive metrics. This feature can “use shared aggregated and anonymous data to improve model quality”. Sounds powerful, right ?

  Unfortunately, it only works if at least 1,000 returning users triggered the relevant predictive condition over a seven-day period. Also, if the model isn’t sustained over a “period of time” then it won’t work. And according to Google, if “the model quality for your property falls below the minimum threshold, then Analytics will stop updating the corresponding predictions”.

  This means GA4’s machine learning insights probably won’t work for the majority of analytics users.

  Ultimately, GA4 is just not ready to replace Google’s Universal Analytics for most users. There are too many missing features.

  What’s missing in Google Analytics 4 ?

  Quite a lot. Even though it offers a completely new approach to analytics, there are a lot of key features and functions missing in GA4.

  Behavior Flow

  The Behavior Flow report in Universal Analytics helps to visualise the path users take from one page or Event to the next. It’s extremely useful when you’re looking for quick and clear insight. But it no longer exists in Google Analytics 4, and instead, two new overcomplicated reports have been introduced to replace it – funnel exploration report and path exploration report.

  The decision to remove this critical report will leave many users feeling disappointed and frustrated. 

  Limitations on custom dimensions

  You can create custom dimensions in Google Analytics 4 to capture advanced information. For example, if a user reads a blog post you can supplement that data with custom dimensions like author name or blog post length. But, you can only use up to 50, and for some that will make functionality like this almost pointless.

  Machine learning (ML) limitations

  Google Analytics 4 promises powerful ML insights to predict the likelihood of users converting based on their behaviors. The problem ? You need 1,000 returning users in one week. For most small-medium businesses this just isn’t possible.

  And if you do get this level of traffic in a week, there’s another hurdle. According to Google, if “the model quality for your property falls below the minimum threshold, then GA will stop updating the corresponding predictions.” To add insult to injury Google suggests that this might make all ML insights unavailable. But they can’t say for certain… 

  Views

  One cornerstone of Universal Analytics is the ability to configure views. Views allow you to set certain analytics environments for testing or cleaning up data by filtering out internal traffic, for example. 

  Views are great for quickly and easily filtering data. Preset views that contain just the information you want to see are the ideal analytics setup for smaller businesses, casual users, and do-it-yourself marketing departments.

  

  There are a few workarounds but they’re “messy [,] annoying and clunky,” says a disenfranchised Redditor.

  Another helpful Reddit user stumbled upon an unhelpful statement from Google. Google says that they “do not offer [the views] feature in Google Analytics 4 but are planning similar functionality in the future.” There’s no specific date yet though.

  Bounce rate

  Those that rely on bounce rate to understand their site’s performance will be disappointed to find out that bounce rate is also not available in GA4. Instead, Google is pushing a new metric known as “Engagement Rate”. With this metric, Google now uses their own formula to establish if a visitor is engaged with a site.

  Lack of integration

  Currently, GA4 isn’t ready to integrate with many core digital marketing tools and doesn’t accept non-Google data imports. This makes it difficult for users to analyse ROI and ROAS for campaigns measured in other tools. 

  Content Grouping

  Yet another key feature that Google has done away with is Content Grouping. However, as with some of the other missing features in GA4, there is a workaround, but it’s not simple for casual users to implement. In order to keep using Content Grouping, you’ll need to create event-scoped custom dimensions.

  Annotations 

  A key feature of Universal Analytics is the ability to add custom Annotations in views. Annotations are useful for marking dates that site changes were made for analysis in the future. However, Google has removed the Annotations feature and offered no alternative or workaround.

  Historical data imports are not available

  The new approach to data modelling in GA4 adds new functionality that UA can’t match. However, it also means that you can’t import historical UA data into GA4. 

  Google’s suggestion for this one ? Keep running UA with GA4 and duplicate events for your GA4 property. Now you will have two different implementations running alongside each other and doing slightly different things. Which doesn’t sound like a particularly streamlined solution, and adds another level of complexity.

  Should you switch to Google Analytics 4 ?

  So the burning question is, should you switch from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4 ? It really depends on whether you have the available resources and if you believe this tool is still right for your organisation. At the time of writing, GA4 is not ready for day-to-day use in most organisations.

  If you’re a casual user or someone looking for quick, clear insights then you will likely struggle with the switch to GA4. It appears that the new Google Analytics 4 has been designed for enterprise-scale businesses with large internal teams of analysts.

  

  Unfortunately, for most casual users, business owners and do-it-yourself marketers there are complex workarounds and time-consuming implementations to handle. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide if the effort to migrate and relearn GA is worth it.

  Right now is the best time to draw the line and make a decision to either switch to GA4 or look for a better alternative to Google Analytics.

  Google Analytics alternative

  Matomo is one of the best Google Analytics alternatives offering an easy to use design with enhanced insights on our Cloud, On-Premise and on Matomo for WordPress solutions. 

  

  Matomo is an open-source analytics solution that provides a comprehensive, user-friendly and compliance-focused alternative to both Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics.

  The key benefits of using Matomo include :

  • Easy to use – Matomo provides a simpler interface and understandable KPIs. See for yourself with our live demo. 
  • Compliance – Future-proof your tech stack for looming privacy regulations. Matomo covers all of your ePrivacy, GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA, and PECR data compliance requirements. 
  • Data privacy and ownership – Your analytics data is 100% yours to own, with no external parties looking in.
  • Flexible, all-in-one solution – Get features like A/B Testing, Heatmaps, Session Recordings, SEO Web Vitals, Tag Manager, Media Analytics, Search Engine Keyword Performance, custom reports and much more. 
  • Integrations galore – Expand your Matomo capabilities by adding integrations from over 100 leading technologies.

  Plus, unlike GA4, Matomo will accept your historical data from UA so you don’t have to start all over again. Check out our 7 step guide to migrating from Google Analytics to find out how.

  Getting started with Matomo is easy. Check out our live demo and start your free 21-day trial. No credit card required.

  In addition to the limitations and complexities of GA4, there are many other significant drawbacks to using Google Analytics.

  Google’s data ethics are a growing concern of many and it is often discussed in the mainstream media. In addition, GA is not GDPR compliant by default and has resulted in 200k+ data protection cases against websites using GA.

  What’s more, the data that Google Analytics actually provides its end-users is extrapolated from samples. GA’s data sampling model means that once you’ve collected a certain amount of data Google Analytics will make educated guesses rather than use up its server space collecting your actual data. 

  The reasons to switch from Google Analytics are rising each day. 

  Wrap up

  The now required update to GA4 will add new layers of complexity, which will leave many casual web analytics users and marketers wondering if there’s a better way. Luckily there is. Get clear insights quickly and easily with Matomo – start your 21-day free trial now.