I’m, naturally enough, a believer in visitor tracking. I think it’s perfectly fair to try to understand the visitor experience in order to work on both improving that experience and to maximise a website’s profit/message potential. When I first began working in the industry and fully understood what kind of data could be collected, I remember finding it quite ominous and unsettling. Now that I know how the data is used, I don’t bat an eyelid. However, I think it is important to remember that the vast majority of visitors we track are those outside the industry – if you put yourself in their shoes, you see a much darker picture of targeting and analysis. But if education is all that stands between distrust and acceptance, why are we not trying to teach? Perhaps we should try a little visitor empathy, or “vempathy”.
I interviewed and surveyed a number of people recently to ascertain how they felt about tracking generally. This was spawned by the fact that when someone asks me what I do (which results in explaining what my company does), I generally find them to be both bored and terrified – a very remarkable combination and one which illustrates the fact that many visitors who claim to distrust tracking will very seldom do anything to counter it. Lethargic horror is probably the most exploited aspect of website visitors.
Most of those I spoke to were shocked to discover what could be learned about them in a single visit and described themselves as suspicious, paranoid and manipulated as a result. I then asked if they would feel differently if this was a site they visited often.
No.
Would they feel differently if they knew that the data was being used to improve their experience on the website?
No.
Would they feel differently if they knew the data would be used to generate tailored advertising?
No.
Would they feel differently if they knew that personally identifiable information (PII) was not being collected and used?
And this was the turning point. There is an assumption that if “I” am being tracked, then “MY” information is being collected. This seems to be the point that needs clarification.
After that, all hell broke loose. Those I spoke to wanted their permission to be sought before tracking was done, but didn’t want a pop-up or to go to a specific page on the site.
The other feeling, from the remainder of the interviewees, was “indifference”, a sense of fairness that if I go to a “free” website, I should “sell something”. Which, I felt, illustrated a belief that “the data is probably used for something sinister, but who cares”? To my mind, this is just as unwelcome a feeling as one of paranoia. It still paints us as the bad guys, but gives us permission to quietly commit our sins.
In Yahoo! Web Analytics, you can see the “interest categories” of your visitors, based on the Yahoo! properties they visit. Eric Peterson, in a fascinating post, has outlined a browser history hack! With tools like these, it is therefore possible to begin building a profile of your visitors as users of the internet, not just as visitors to your website. And this can surely give you incredible insight. But even I, while finding these possibilities dance-in-my-pants exciting, also sometimes find them dance-in-my-pants disturbing. It’s a reflex and I can settle the little voice inside with my knowledge and understanding of the industry. The general site visitor may not have that luxury. If you look up “website tracking” with a search engine, you will see thousands of results from vendors and analysts, but little (outside of from tinfoil-hat-wearing conspiracy theorists) along the lines of “Dear Visitor – here are the reasons, without the fancy blurb, why we track your visit and this is what we use the information for”.
Should we be taking greater responsibility for educating website visitors? Should we work on our “vempathy”?
