Tracking and Analytics
Purple Experience
Web site tracking, as used by publishers, mainly collects data to gain insight into user behaviour:
- What content is being consumed, how often and for how long?
- How do people navigate and interact on the site?
- Is there any content that users don't want to see?
At the same time, website tracking is necessary to deliver targeted advertising.
Any tracking must comply with relevant privacy regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The Purple Experience allows you to define information to be tracked, but does not store any information. For data warehousing and analytics, we rely on third-party integration.
To help you define your needs, this article provides a brief overview of website tracking in general.
There are many ways to collect data about how people interact with your content.
Web beacons, also known as tracking pixels or clear gifs, are the classic way of gathering basic usage insights. These small images are loaded with content and the number of times this happens is counted. They can be combined with cookies to provide further data.
An example of web beacons is the usage tracking we do with VG Wort.
Tracking scripts can be useful if you want to monitor visitor activity on your website. These scripts are essentially small pieces of code embedded in web pages that can help you track user behaviour, collect data and send it to the website owner or a third party service for analysis. We have implemented logic to trigger third party tracking tools from within the Purple Experience.
A widely used technique for monitoring website user activity is the use of tracking cookies. The data, stored in small text files on the user's device, is used to create personalised experiences. Due to privacy concerns, browsers block third-party cookies.
Every time a website is opened, the user's IP address is required to establish a connection between the two devices. IP addresses can reveal information about the user, including their geographical location, internet service provider and, in some cases, their actual identity. While IP addresses are necessary to make the web work, they are generally considered personal information and can only be tracked with consent. The Purple Experience does not generally track or store such information.