discuss: Using Webbug to track hits
Subject:
Re: Using Webbug to track hits
From:
Rahul ####@####.####
Date:
25 Apr 2004 15:09:14 -0000
Message-Id: <20040425150845.69025.qmail@web8005.mail.in.yahoo.com>
--- Kwan Lowe ####@####.#### wrote: > Not
responding to anyone in particular, but I do
> want to put my opinion
> in the record:
>
>
> The idea is that a tracking image can be inserted
> into documents on the
> TLDP site so that the popularity of documents can be
> gauged. The IP
> addresses of the readers will not be saved in order
> to prevent abuse or
> malicious mining.
>
> I disagree with this proposal for the following
> reasons:
>
> 1) I do think that gauging the popularity of
> documents can be useful to
> focus resources and see what people are looking for.
> I do this very
> often by going through my apache logs and:
> a) looking for search strings
> b) Looking at the hit counter for particular
> documents in webalizer
>
You got a good point here. logs can be used instead of
changing anything but its better to inform readers
that we are collecting stastics explicitly ( note: we
neednt track/store ips)
> 2) None (or very few) of the documents currently
> contain this tracking
> GIF. This will require rework. See also 3a.
Changing the stylesheet and regenerating docs is not a
huge work. we dont need to work with individual docs.
Also we dont need to use transparent gifs. we can just
display a image explicitly stating the purpose
>
> 3) The document tracker will be optional for many
> documents (I need some
> clarification here). This will invalidate any
> meaningful statistics
> pulled from the tracking numbers. I.e., if you're
> only tracking a
> portion of the documents, you cannot extrapolate to
> the population of
> documents.
>
we can track every page usage
> a) If you intend to track all documents you will
> need to contact all
> authors (including those that have written
> privacy-oriented documents)
> and convince them that tracking GIFs are a good idea
> since this is a
> revision to current policy.
why?. we are clearly stating the purpose. what kind of
privacy is being breached here?.
> 4) Tracking GIFs, though their intention may be
> benign, are still
> tracking GIFs. Many people, not just authors, object
> to them on
> principle alone without considering their benefits.
> These people can be
> quite vocal about their disapproval.
we can use a explicit image which would explain the
purpose within the image itself.
>
> I also have some privacy concerns. Truthfully, they
> are not the main
> concern, but they do exist. For one, I and many
> others that I work with,
> have static IP addresses.
tldp isnt going to sell this data. we dont need to
display the ips. would that be suitable to you?
regards
Rahul
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