1.8.x Do not track feature: What exactly does it do?

Support & Bugs
1

I am a little confused by the description of the new do not track feature. It is my understanding that when a visitor sets the do not track flag in the browser, websites shouldn’t allow third party cookies to be dropped. I don’t see how piwik is part of this. The piwik cookies are site cookies that are dropped to help me monitor traffic. It is unrelated (as far as I know) to any third party or advertising tracking. Even if I track ecommerce goals, they are still just part of the site.

Can you explain what happens if I honor do not track in piwik? Also, how does anything piwik drops count as a third party cookie?

2

Basicly, if I have well understand: With this option checked into your webbrowser, that’s do of piwik not track you.

3

[quote=dragonx86]
Basicly, if I have well understand: With this option checked into your webbrowser, that’s do of piwik not track you.[/quote]

This doesn’t seem to fit the meaning of “Do not track”. My understanding is that do not track refers to third party marketing tracking cookies, not browser statistics gathering for the actual site the visitor is on. I believe we already have an i-frame available that we can drop to allow visitors to not get counted in site stats.

4

I would also like some clarification on this, as there seems to be a disconnect between the meaning of the Do-Not-Track HTTP header and the implementation in Piwik.

The IETF draft standard for Do Not Track specifies:

8.1. Opt Out In processing a request that includes an OPT-OUT header, a server MUST NOT perform THIRD-PARTY TRACKING. The server MUST instruct the user agent to delete any data previously stored for THIRD-PARTY TRACKING.

First party tracking, which is what Piwik is generally used for, is specifically excluded from OPT-OUT by section 9.1.

So if the standard is being followed, then enabling “Do not track” should only exclude visitors if the Piwik server is being run by a third-party entity. However, everything I’ve read about the Piwik “Do not track” feature suggests it is disabling all tracking, including first party.

5

Whether it’s right or not: What does “do not track” do? Will nothing be tracked anymore? I mean: “what kind of pages are opened how often” is not that sensitive information, isn’t it?!

6

Since I updated to 1.8, when firefox do not tack is enabled, piwik is not working, it is not collecting data.
Anyone know why or how to fix?

7

It’s normal. Like with google analitics, or other ad same. It’s the function of “do not tack” into the browser.

8

You can disable the plugin from the Settings screen. It was included and enabled by default in Piwik 1.8.

“Opt-in” is defined from the perspective of the browser user.