Thanks for your comments. I wanted to update you with my input:

Firstly, please note my criticism was of Clicktale’s approach to marketing themselves – not their product. I simply do not comment on products directly.

Responding to your specific points below:

A-C) By default, GA will be tracking the Clicktale PII as it is part of the tracking URL they used. However, that was not really my point, as clarified in my response to Clicktale. My concern is that using PII to track a visitor is a no-no. Its bad for the industry and not necessary when it comes to website, web page or marketing optimisation. You may be aware of the current debate about the use of cookies in the US and how the legislators are trying to ban them – particularly from government site. These sort of incidents add fuel to the fire. I am obviously a big fan of web tracking per se(!), but if vendors start to abuse online privacy that damages this industry we enjoy so much. Hence my flaming of any company that abuses this.

To Clicktale’s credit, they responded by holding up their hands and apologising for the mistake of using PII – see their response on my post. So I consider this particular matter closed. However if someone wishes to start a new thread about online privacy in general, I am more than happy to take part. As you will know I write about this topic often – see: http://www.advanced-web-metrics.com/blog/category/privacy-accuracy/

In the words of Ian Thomas while he was looking after Microsoft Analytics, “online privacy is the next big thing the industry needs to address” (SES, London, Feb 2008). He was clearly ahead of his time!

D-E) Comments to my blog became personal and vitriolic and even threats. You wouldn’t have seen some of these as they came direct to my inbox (and still are doing). I therefore closed down the comments as the debate deteriorated into a farce. No new content was being added and there was no informed debate – just a repeat of existing points with SHOUTING and silly slurs on mine and Avinash’s credibility.

Apologies if your comments got caught up in this – I was battling against one or two people determined to “spam” my site with repeated identical posts. I will manually add this one to the existing thread as you clearly have valid points to make.

F) Agreed. I welcome anyone’s attempt at improving metrics and understanding in our industry. If only Clicktale had approached this in a more sensible and professional way… it does however make a great case study in online reputation management!

Best regards, Brian

— In webanalytics@yahoogroups.com, “mfeiner17″ wrote:
>
>
>
> Having read Brian, ClickTale and Brandt (http://blogs.imediaconnection.com/2009/10/22/Web-Analytics/Brian-Clifton-s-crusade_958.aspx) blog posts repeatedly I reached somewhat different conclusions:
>
> A) ClickTale do not track PII data into Google Analytics thus not breaking the Google ToS. The usage of PII appears to be internal only and legitimate (as long as it remains internal).
>
> B) The ClickTale post was sensationalist (too sensationalist IMO) but in no way was it factually misinformed or misleading. It described some commonly accepted limitations of the GA (and most other WA tools) measurement methodology
>
> C) ClickTale never claimed that GA includes single page visits for the purpose of calculating Ave. Time on Page. On the contrary, they make several written and visual references stating the opposite
>
> D) According to Brandt ClickTale did not plagiarise his content (see his article. It also appeared on the a now deleted comment on Brian’s blog)
>
> E) Brian has the right to remove comments from his blog if he thinks they are vitriolic. I thought Brandt’s second comment was on topic, fair and by no means a personal attack. I’m sorry to see it removed
>
> F) “I thought the ClickTale post was well written and highlights a reason to use the two services in tandem” – a direct quote from one of the most respected figures in the WA industry. I think that is the point ClickTale are trying to make (even if I don’t entirely agree with how they did it – I would have written that blog post differently!)
>
> I’m not affiliated with any of the parties mentioned here.
> I hope we can continue this debate based on facts rather then rhetoric from both sides.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Michael Feiner
> AEP Convert
> http://www.aepconvert.com
>

Thanks for those that responded. I wrote this post for two clear reasons:

1. To highlight the misuse of PII that damages the web measurement industry as a whole.
2. To highlight the misinformation being spread about GA

To Clicktale’s credit, they responded to the PII issue by holding their hands up and apologising for their mistake. For the second point, the discussion descended into a farce and I started to receive personal, vitriolic comments, both here and direct via email – even threats!

I now realise some people have their own irrational agenda when it comes to Google and its a waste of time for me to reason with them. Lesson learned…

Whether you were breaking the Google Analytics ToS is not really my point. Breaking my right to online privacy is – whether you use GA, Yahoo Analytics, WebTrends, Clicktale or any other web measurement tool. Putting aside your use of personally identifiable information, the headlines you use in your article are simply incorrect and misleading. For example:

“Google Analytics cannot tell you anything about bounced visitors! “
Really? – I have entire sections of my book dedicated to describing how to use bounce metrics from GA to optimise website content and marketing. There are also numerous other articles and blog concerning bounce rate optimisation with GA.

“Google Analytics gives you no information about how long your visitors actually interact with your online content”
Are you really stating that time on bounced pages is the key metric to define website engagement and GA has nothing else to offer? That’s a rhetorical question, no response required…

If you stand by those headlines, then unfortunately we really can’t have an informed debate here.

To summarize my point
If you have a new innovative way of tracking visitor engagement then great, lets about hear it. Shout from the rooftops, present at eMetrics etc. But please, let it be judged on its own merits and leave the sensationalist and misleading headlines in the bin – along with invading visitor’s privacy. Jeez – I should go into management consulting

My comments concern Clicktale’s approach to PII and misinformation – which I am responding to separately in this thread…