New web browsers and Piwik

As new browsers (such as IE9 and Firefox 4) come around, will their privacy features cause Piwik to lose any functionality?

very interesting question.

The big privacy-related change in FF4 is css:visited. Piwik doesn’t use that, so it has no impact on current/future functionality. Most of the privacy-related functionality in IE9 was introduced in IE8 (e.g., InPrivate).

The threats to Piwik functionality are not new:

  • browsers that may be configured to block third party cookies (impact: overcounting)
  • browsers configured with JavaScript disabled or an extension/add-on that blocks trackers (impact: undercounting)

The workarounds are:

  • host piwik on the same domain as the site being tracked, resulting in a first party cookie
  • server-side tracking module; impact: inability to collect browser information, but better than not counting at all