Does 2018 mark the Death of the Cookie?

Yes, another GDPR post. However, whilst many articles on this subject say what you will not be able to do anymore we have developed something that you can use.

There is still great ambiguity and disagreement over how the GDPR legislation will be interpreted.

Opinions and interpretations aside. For some companies the potential risks of breaching the rules (fines being a percentage of turnover), out weigh the need for even the most basic of web data capture – google analytics.

For those that do not know. Google Analytics code is added to a website to track how many times a page is viewed, how many unique visitors there are, what they do (and do not do) when on the site. Using this information, you can make more informed decisions about your sites layout, design and usability to improve performance.

The stricter compliance officers will state that by dropping the cookie without consent (a cookie representing a user), sending the data to a third party (google), and profiling that information all breech these new rules.

The trouble is, having to ask a visitor to opt into tracking means that you lose valuable information such as the total number of page views and visits, and the source of traffic.

Fear no more!

Cookies are not the only way to track your sites performance.

Take for instance our tracking tool WebFusion. WebFusion can be customised to only take the data approved by compliance or other internal pressures.

At a basic level, without any individual metrics at all, WebFusion can capture typical journeys and interactions on a site. This will give you the total number of visits, total number of page views, and the typical order in which people view content. In addition, we can still provide information such as source of traffic, device type (if you don’t consider this personal information), and much more.

Furthermore, where as to use google analytics you are asked agree to their terms and conditions to share your data, WebFusion data is owned by you and never shared without your permission!

Can we help?

For those of you that struggle with the google analytics reporting suite, we offer an analytical support service to produce regular pdf reports or you can have access to a custom-built dashboard. Making the ongoing support much easier.

If you are taking digital GDPR seriously, this is the tool for you.  Contact us for more information.