Privacy protecting metrics for web audience measurement

Mike O'Neill, February 2019

©2019, Baycloud Systems Ltd. All rights reserved.

The online advertisment ecosystem needs accurate information … more

The Charter of the the W3C Tracking Protection Working Group (TPWG) has expired, and the WG shut down, after publishing the  Do-Not-Track technical document as a 'Note'.

As the Note's introduction … more

My mother's family are all from Aberdeenshire where I spent the best part of my childhood. We would relocate our company to Scotland in a heartbeat if it stays in the EU.

So, I was not happy when … more

A proposal for restricting user indentifiers to site-specific contexts.

The DNT Tracking Preference Expression document (TPE) allows for the registration and communication of site-specific consent, … more

The European Commission’s recent proposal for the new ePrivacy Regulation (EPR), like the ePrivacy Directive which it will replace, creates rules on how websites or service providers should process … more

Recent reports reveal that the UK’s GCHQ has hacked into computers belonging to Dutch multinational Gemalto, to gain access to encryption keys used for mobile telecommunications. They did this by … more

Another method allowing targeted advertisers to avoid Safari third-party cookie blocking has been found on a UK website, implemented by a French AdTech company.I have pointed out before that an … more

Yesterday’s announcement from the CPB, the Dutch DPA, that they were giving Google till the end of February to comply with the Data Protection Act is another sign that European laws on online … more

A number of posts have reported on the death of the cookie, like this one in VentureBeat, but, as Mark Twain famously said, "the reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated".

SSO (and any log- … more

On tracking some of the trackers some of the time.

Ghostery claims to show you “the invisible web” and block activity that could track your activity, but omits to report tracking by Google.

The … more

The e-privacy directive was designed is to give people control over tracking, i.e. you have to be asked for permission before collecting data about your web history. Of course, the technique most … more

The AddThis script is no longer using canvas fingerprinting on any of the sites we have looked at. In July we found many sites that were using this technique, including the White House and the UK … more

The world’s biggest advertising group, WPP, through their media buying subsidiary GroupM have just issued a comment to the Do Not Track Tracking Preference Expression public list.

Their position is … more

The Article 29 Data Protection Working Party (WP29), an independent advisory body set up in 1995 under the auspices of the EU Data Protection Directive and composed of representatives of all European … more

Opt-In Or Opt-Out? Why Do Not Track And Respect For Fundamental Rights Will Save The Web

Imagine - you walk into a shoe shop and while you are looking at some trainers someone sneaks up and … more

The body responsible for Do Not Track (DNT), the W3C’s Tracking Protection Working Group will shortly be releasing the technical part of the standard in a process named Last Call (LC) when … more

Baycloud Systems sets the record straight.

For some time Evidon, formerly known as Better Advertising, – acquirer of the Ghostery ad blocking browser extension, have been publishing misleading … more

Internet Explorer 10 now accounts for over 70% of all requests with DNT set.

The percentage of web requests with the DNT header set in our sample of European websites  is approaching 13%

The … more

Internet Explorer 10 compensates for declining Chrome DNT usage

The number of web requests to European websites from users of Internet Explorer is approaching 4% of the total. The percentage of DNT … more

The law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse has been in the news recently in connection with the unprecedented level of lobbying activity directed against the new Data Protection Regulation, currently being … more

European Data Protection Day Monday, Jan 28th, 2013.

The number of web requests to European websites from browsers with Do Not Track set is now over 7% of the total, and rising.

Take a look at our … more

Comment to GDS blog post "It’s not about cookies, it’s about privacy"  

Mike O'Neill (@incloud) — 20/03/2012

It should be about respecting citizen’s privacy, not implementation convenience.

The … more

Our comment to Gov.UK blog post "Cookies on the Beta"

The Google Analytics (__utma) cookie is no more or less “intrusive” than any other piece of inert data. It is simply a number that is unique to … more

Online privacy and the ePrivacy directive

Website publishers should not be told to “go ahead” if they want to use cookies. The law in most European jurisdictions require that consent is … more