A strong online presence is crucial for crypto companies and web analytics can be a key tool for their growth. But common web analytics tools are difficult to square with the crypto ethos. Common services like Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics are privacy-invasive tools that centralize information by funneling personal data to large corporations. That’s a long shot from the tenets of privacy, anonymization, and decentralization that are key to the crypto ethos!
Here is why cookie-based analytics is a poor choice for crypto businesses, and how they can approach web analytics while staying true to the core values of the crypto community.
Cookies, cookies everywhere
Google Analytics is by far the most common web analytics tool but comes with big drawbacks: it is very reliant on privacy-invasive cookies and funnels data to Google- a company known for its terrible data governance and disdain for user privacy.
Cookies are a powerful tool for analytics: by matching each browser with a unique ID, cookies accurately track crucial metrics such as unique visitors and referrals (at least in theory- more on this later). At the same time, cookies are terrible for user privacy. By tracking users across websites, cookies invade privacy and harm Internet users by exposing their browsing habits and leaving them vulnerable to re-identification attacks.
To make things worse, Google Analytics (and other common web analytics tools such as Adobe Analytics) are integrated with Google’s ad tech services like Google Ad Server. This sounds kind of cool until you realize that the whole ad tech environment is a worldwide data breach where delicate and sensitive data are sold to countless “partners” (a.k.a. data brokers) who themselves resell them for pennies to just about anyone. These data are often combined with information from other sources such as device IDs and location data. With so much data floating around and little to no control over its sale, it is trivial for stalkers, cybercriminals and foreign governments to collect the data and use them in harmful ways.
(Alright, alright: if you want to be incredibly picky, Google does’t quite sell personal data. It does something similar but with even worse consequences for privacy. Calling Google’s data sharing practices a sale is a euphemism).
And no, we are not exaggerating.The ICCL has long been ringing the alarm over data brokering. A recent report by Netzpolitik has shocked German politicians, Even NATO considers ad tech a threat to both personal and national security! It’s that bad.
Cookies make customers vulnerable
There are other issues with cookies. The risk of being re-identified based on cookie data can expose individuals to blackmail or social engineering attacks. It may also facilitate a more sophisticated attack by helping the attacker collect information- for instance, by checking whether any of their passwords have been leaked on the Dark Web.
These security issues are a severe concern to crypto business because the irreversible nature of blockchain transactions makes crypto users prime targets for cyberattacks. Anything that could compromise the investor’s cybersecurity should be a hard no for a serious crypto company!
So much for centralization
As if that wasn’t enough, Google Analytics flies in the face of another core tenet of crypto: decentralization.
Decentralization is a complex notion and not everyone in the crypto community understands it in the exact same way. That being said, funneling data to one of the most powerful corporations in the world and a certified, abusive monopolist, has to be the exact opposite of decentralization.
To make things worse, Google will make the most of centralization- not you.
According to its privacy policy, Google uses personal data from Google Analytics to “develop and improve its services”. Notice the plural: “services” is potentially any of Google’s countless services, including its advertising businesses. This is a euphemism for serving targeted advertising- even for different businesses, and on websites and apps you have no stakes in. Not only is Google invading user privacy- it is not even doing it for your benefit.
If you think we are exaggerating, consider this: under the GDPR, a data controller has some sort of stake in the data they handle. On the other hand, a data processor simply helps someone else process data. What role do you think Google claims in its policies?
Long story short: using Google Analytics means providing personal and potentially sensitive data to a monopolist that will treat them carelessly, mine them for its own benefit, and sell them to cats and dogs- while you bear the risk of losing the trust of your visitors.
The data gap
For all their ugly drawbacks, cookie-based tools yield accurate measurements- in theory. In practice, people reject cookies. A lot.
There are no reliable estimates for cookie rejection rates but the general consensus among marketers is that the figures are very high and pose a real problem. Opt-out rates result in a data gap that cannot really be filled: if you miss half your data, measuring the rest very accurately doesn’t really help.
The trend is pretty clear here: the public is becoming more and more privacy-concerned and really, really likes to reject cookies, install ad blockers, and opt out of tracking in general. When Apple implemented controls on data collection for iOS, a staggering 96% of users opted out of third-party data extraction. That’s how much the general public hates tracking- and the crypto crowd hates it even more.
Websites try to counter the trend in several ways. Some just disrespect the user by placing cookies without consent. This is a violation of the laws of many countries and one that they are very likely to get caught for since it is trivial for users to find unwanted cookies in their browser.
Other websites use deceptive and annoying cookie banners that make cookies difficult to reject. Those banners are a compliance risk under the GDPR and do not work with the more sophisticated Internet users like crypto folks. Tech-savvy people are better than average at finding that carefully hidden “reject all” button in the UI. Or, they just slap an ad blocker on their browser, accept anything, and let the script do the work.
Cryptos and cookies just don't mesh
Another crucial factor for crypto companies to consider is the nature of the audience. Crypto users and investors tend to be sophisticated Internet users with lower than average rates of cookie consent. They understand that cookies are bad and will likely take the time to reject or erase them- if they don’t run an ad-blocker to begin with.
The crypto crowd is also irked the wrong way by cookie banners. They understand quite well that using Google Analytics or a similarly invasive tool is disrespectful towards website visitors.
Long story short, the sophistication of crypto users amplifies all the downsides of cookies. A cookie-based tool such as Google Analytics will undermine their trust and yield very little data, effectively weakening the only presence of a crypto company. That is the exact opposite of what web analytics should do.
Are cookies really that bad?
Given all their downsides, how are cookies still the standard in ad tech?
Because Google is greedy.
It is no mystery that cookie-based analytics is not sustainable. Many companies are becoming less dependent on cookies and leaning into first-party data instead (which is still not ideal from a privacy standpoint but arguably less terrible than cookies). All major browsers have been blocking third-party cookies by default for years now with the notable exception of Google Chrome.
Chrome’s support for third-party cookies is no coincidence: while the industry at large is moving forward, Google is stubbornly keeping cookies alive because they are essential to its ad tech properties. In fact, the company just backtracked on its long-postponed commitment to deprecating cookies. Google simply cannot afford to let its advertising monopoly crumble, no matter the cost to society.
All in all, cookie-based tracking is just not the effective solution it used to be. Cookies are a liability in the new regulatory environment, suffer from a large data gap, and undermine the trust of an increasingly privacy-concerned public.
Towards a cookieless future
An increasing number of web analytics providers offer non-cookie based tools that claim to be privacy-friendly. But not all of them are: some rely on shady solutions like IP tracking and device fingerprinting. Thankfully, others stay true to their privacy-friendly statements and offer real privacy along with great insights for growing a company’s online presence.
We built such a tool. Simple Analytics is an innovative, lightweight, user-centered web analytics service that collects no personal data at all.
Aside from being privacy-friendly, this data minimization approach has its perks. Not collecting personal data makes it trivial to comply with the GDPR and other privacy laws around the world. It also means that customers do not need consent for cookies and don’t have to bother visitors with a cookie banner.
Simple Analytics does more than simplifying compliance and privacy. We offer an intuitive, user-friendly UI that new users learn and master in no time. We also built a handy AI assistant to answer queries about the data. Finding the information you need is as simple as typing “show me all my traffic from Facebook over the last two weeks”.
Last but not least, we do not sell data or use it for our own ends. The only people to ever touch our customer data are a small number of EU-based, GDPR-compliant service providers who are under strict confidentiality obligations.
Want to supercharge your business with an innovative, privacy-friendly, future-proof solution? Feel free to give us a try with our free two week trial!.