Analytics

[Luke Bradley]

Dear all,

I would like to know if it is best practice to include analytics tools (e.g. Google Analytics) on the webpage from which you run your experiment. It seems like it might be useful for things like completions as a proportion of visitors to the page. But perhaps it is unnecessary.

Many thanks,

Luke

[Kristian Lange]

Hi Luke,

I would not add any analytics tool that post your tracking data to a private company's server to the web page from which you start your experiment nor to the experiment page itself. Just to get the completion ratio there are other ways to get them. 

Best,

Kristian

[Luke Bradley]

Thank you for your advice!

Luke

[Joshua Hartshorne]

Kristian's point about tracking is well-taken. But I believe Google Analytics does have a setting that anonymizes IP address. 

If you are still worried, or if you are collecting very sensitive data, you could write your own tracker. I do think being able to keep track of completions, etc., is critical to running a volunteer-based online lab. It's one of your best indications that you have a problem. 

[Luke Bradley]

Thanks very much. The data is not unusually sensitive, so Google Analytics might be OK.