[RyanT]

Does TSR have a policy towards the installation of tracking cookies by advertisers?

From ghostery



AdvertPro is a complete ad management platform for publishers and advertisers who require ad serving, targeting, tracking and real-time reporting.

Crazy Egg appears to be a harmless tool for the dev team

Quantcast is one of the Web's best sources for tracking, not only web site traffic, but also who those visitors are. For example, check out this Quantcast.

ScorecardResearch uses a combination of web beacons and cookies to help websites count users who have visited and seen a page or various parts of a page. We require that any website using our web beacon and cookies to include a notice about the use of web beacons and cookies to collect anonymous traffic data and to state what choices are available to users regarding the use of the information collected.

Out of interest, where is that notice??

I don't have an axe to grind against TSR, but I do think you need to come clean on what exactly you're selling your advertisers. It's a little more then just space on a page, some of these organisations want to install software to track your usage across the internet and other websites.

[Illusionary]

(Original post by RyanT)
Does TSR have a policy towards the installation of tracking cookies by advertisers?

From ghostery



AdvertPro is a complete ad management platform for publishers and advertisers who require ad serving, targeting, tracking and real-time reporting.

Crazy Egg appears to be a harmless tool for the dev team

Quantcast is one of the Web's best sources for tracking, not only web site traffic, but also who those visitors are. For example, check out this Quantcast.

ScorecardResearch uses a combination of web beacons and cookies to help websites count users who have visited and seen a page or various parts of a page. We require that any website using our web beacon and cookies to include a notice about the use of web beacons and cookies to collect anonymous traffic data and to state what choices are available to users regarding the use of the information collected.

Out of interest, where is that notice??

I don't have an axe to grind against TSR, but I do think you need to come clean on what exactly you're selling your advertisers. It's a little more then just space on a page, some of these organisations want to install software to track your usage across the internet and other websites.

TSR's privacy policy is here (though I wouldn't be the one to answer any detailed questions on it): http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/faq.php?faq=tsr_cat

AFAIK, it's very common for banner ads to use tracking cookies.

[RyanT]

(Original post by Illusionary)
TSR's privacy policy is here (though I wouldn't be the one to answer any detailed questions on it): http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/faq.php?faq=tsr_cat

AFAIK, it's very common for banner ads to use tracking cookies.

That was an amusing read, thanks.

My favourite in the legal notice-

3.2 You are prohibited from posting or transmitting to or from the Website any material that is...scandalous



Third Party Advertisements

Any advertisement appearing on this website (including but not limited to banners, text adverts, skyscrapers, emails, private messages etc) is delivered to you by us, or on our behalf by our web advertising partners.
Information you provide us with may be used anonymously to ensure that you receive more targeted advertisements, but no personal information that you provide us with will ever be passed to a third party.
Anonymous aggregated information based on users’ activities e.g. number of people clicking on an advert will be passed to advertisers. No information about specific users activity will ever be passed to a third party.



It does seem to be rather unclear, stressing that TSR wont sell information that we directly give it but neither does it address tracking cookies placed by the third party. I'm sure the site administator is aware of the huge fines you can now receive when the new EU law comes into force, I think at the beginning of May? regarding not giving notice of cookies. EU law notice just a friendly FYI. I don't think TSR is particularly bad on these counts, but it is definitely an issue which needs more awareness.

[Illusionary]

(Original post by RyanT)
That was an amusing read, thanks.

My favourite in the legal notice-

3.2 You are prohibited from posting or transmitting to or from the Website any material that is...scandalous

What "personally identifiable information" do you think that TSR is disclosing externally?

[RyanT]

(Original post by Illusionary)
What "personally identifiable information" do you think that TSR is disclosing externally?

I'm not accusing TSR of doing this, but I do suspect that the tracking cookies are gathering personally identifiable information themselves. It appears just to be a cookie installation phase as you enter this website, they track you over the rest of the internet and build up data that can personally identify you.

I.e. it's not TSR itself, it's these advertisment agencies. I don't think TSR is morally doing anything wrong, but I do want to raise a flag to other users who think TSR is only selling a banner. It appears to be selling/giving away more with quantcast cookies and advertpro tracking cookies. Perhaps I am misunderstanding a stage here as I'm not 100% familiar with all of the firms listed, but that appears to be the impression. Perhaps we can get clarification at a more sociable hour from the professionals.

[Illusionary]

(Original post by RyanT)
I'm not accusing TSR of doing this, but I do suspect that the tracking cookies are gathering personally identifiable information themselves. It appears just to be a cookie installation phase as you enter this website, they track you over the rest of the internet and build up data that can personally identify you.

I.e. it's not TSR itself, it's these advertisment agencies. I don't think TSR is morally doing anything wrong, but I do want to raise a flag to other users who think TSR is only selling a banner. It appears to be selling/giving away more with quantcast cookies and advertpro tracking cookies. Perhaps I am misunderstanding a stage here as I'm not 100% familiar with all of the firms listed, but that appears to be the impression.

There is a legal issue here in relation to cookies, but I'm not sure that it's quite as you describe. TSR isn't itself disclosing any personal information via the cookies - those are set by the advertising carriers (which I accept that TSR is allowing to operate here). If you look at the description that is given of personally identifiable information you'll see that this includes details "such as email address, home address, first and last names, and other such identifiable information is only known when voluntarily provided by a visitor for the purpose of registration, or in communication with other members and guests." - this isn't information that the advertisers' cookies can or do collect.

The issue that does need to be addressed is described here: http://www.out-law.com/page-11907 (see also http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/ManageCon...ompliance.aspx)
"Changes to existing EU legislation mean that ‘explicit consent’ must be sought from website owners before they track the online behaviours of their users with ‘cookie’ files."

My understanding is that this requirement extends to include all cookies that come via a site visit - including those from advertising banners, etc., and there's currently a technical challenge in terms of how this can actually be feasibly implemented by *any* website.

[Captain Jack]

Hi RyanT, this is a very valid concern and one that we are addressing right now to be compliant with the revised ePrivacy Directive from May. We've already conducted an audit of all of the cookies we use and what they're used for. The next step is to explain all of this in a transparent and clear way, which will be included in our Privacy Policy in time for the May deadline.

It's worth pointing out that none of the cookies used for advertising on the site collect personally identifiable information and TSR is actually highly compliant already due to the very nature of its user accounts and anonymous usernames. As TSR is largely a member driven site, it does go further than most sites because it highlights the privacy policy and terms in the registration process.

I actually spent the last two to three years working with people on this very topic to set the guidance explaining to UK websites what they need to do, so it's quite nice to be able to put it into practice. Once TSR's information is live I'd welcome your thoughts on it to make sure it is clear.

[RyanT]

(Original post by Captain Jack)
Hi RyanT, this is a very valid concern and one that we are addressing right now to be compliant with the revised ePrivacy Directive from May. We've already conducted an audit of all of the cookies we use and what they're used for. The next step is to explain all of this in a transparent and clear way, which will be included in our Privacy Policy in time for the May deadline.

It's worth pointing out that none of the cookies used for advertising on the site collect personally identifiable information and TSR is actually highly compliant already due to the very nature of its user accounts and anonymous usernames. As TSR is largely a member driven site, it does go further than most sites because it highlights the privacy policy and terms in the registration process.

I actually spent the last two to three years working with people on this very topic to set the guidance explaining to UK websites what they need to do, so it's quite nice to be able to put it into practice. Once TSR's information is live I'd welcome your thoughts on it to make sure it is clear.

Thanks for your reply, TSR sounds well positioned to deal with the changes then. We'll have a look in May, although the main purpose of the post was to raise a flag to other users by using their favourite site as an example of where such tracking cookies can come from.

I personally don't have a problem with being tracked over TSR but I don't see tracking cookies that track my other web usage as being acceptable, which appears to be what these third party cookies are doing. I already block them, but as I said re awareness I suspect many people don't realise that this happens and would be perturbed if they did.


@Illusionary
Mini article on quantcast I definitely wouldn't want them installing tracking cookies on my pc. But you're right re the distinction with personal data.

[Captain Jack]

(Original post by RyanT)
Thanks for your reply, TSR sounds well positioned to deal with the changes then. We'll have a look in May, although the main purpose of the post was to raise a flag to other users by using their favourite site as an example of where such tracking cookies can come from.

I personally don't have a problem with being tracked over TSR but I don't see tracking cookies that track my other web usage as being acceptable, which appears to be what these third party cookies are doing. I already block them, but as I said re awareness I suspect many people don't realise that this happens and would be perturbed if they did.


@Illusionary
Mini article on quantcast I definitely wouldn't want them installing tracking cookies on my pc. But you're right re the distinction with personal data.

Hello - I've attached the text explaining our use of cookies. If you have a chance, I'd love to know your thoughts on this, if it makes sense, is clear enough. Thanks!

[RyanT]

(Original post by Captain Jack)
Hello - I've attached the text explaining our use of cookies. If you have a chance, I'd love to know your thoughts on this, if it makes sense, is clear enough. Thanks!

It's a lot clearer now thanks.

Cheers for the link to the Your Online Choices control page, that's a gold mine and hits what I wanted to turn off and control - third party advertising/tracking groups. Appreciated

[cambo211]

Thanks for the link to that site