Google Analytics: Should Google be minding YOUR Web business?

Occam’s Razor blog by Avinash Kaushik, an “independent consultant” and author of “Web Analytics, an hour a day”:

Version 2 is so radically different and provides such a compelling value proposition to users of web analytics that I am excited to write a blog post about a product (the first time I have done this in 11 months of existence of this blog).

I am also the Analytics Evangelist for Google but you’ll see that I am so excited about GA V2 not because I consult for Google but because I believe that v2 is a leap forward for all of its current users and a new standard for the industry when it comes to interacting complex web analytics data.

Why is Kaushik gushing from his analytics heart for the product he is paid by Google to evangelize?:

1. Notice the awesome new data interaction model.
2. Take the enhanced “data discoverability” for a spin.
3. Context is king! Find your context quickly.
4. Ahh…. Segmentation is just a step away.
5. Upgraded goodies: Schedule and email any report or dashboards, Better site overlay, Much nicer page level reporting and more.

Much of the Google Analytics V2 is aimed at presentation and interaction enhancements. Kaushik is effusive:

As you’ll use the tool you’ll see more and more examples of effective communication of data via a very well thought out UI that is perhaps the best one today amongst all web analytics tools. People underestimate the value of being pretty.

Kaushik can not be restrained: “The tool is easier to use, key metrics jump out to you and it is ever more easy to understand what is going one (if only all sexiness in the world was so productive! : ))”.

“It is both a blessing and a curse that there so much data that we have access to,” Kaushik notes. The Google Anlaytics curse he alludes to is hardly a bad one, though:

As you use the tool you’ll find many little and big ways in which the new UI makes it easier for you to drill down, drill up and drill around.

But what about Google’s drilling, “down, up and around” everyone else’s data!

Google solicits:

Track and compare all your ads, email newsletters, affiliate campaigns, referrals, paid links, and keywords on Google and other search engines. Google Analytics tracks all online campaigns, from emails to keywords, regardless of search engine or referral source.

BUT is it really prudent for Web sites to open their back office to Google? Should Google really know how its AdWords customers are investing in online advertising with Google competitors?

Why did we develop this new version? Google asks and answers:

Since Google Analytics launched in November 2005, the demand for website analytics has increased significantly. Today there are hundreds of thousands of Google Analytics customers, and web analytics has moved from being a niche function to becoming a mainstream aspect of the business for companies of all sizes.

In other words, Web analytics is a mission critical function. As such, it should be handled accordingly, in-house or with a neutral third-party.

Google owned Analytics is not an arms length, neutral third party. Google has a vested interest in knowing and understanding Google Analytics data resulting from both AdWords campaigns and advertising campaigns placed with competitors. 

What does Google do with the information it creates about other Websites’ customers?

Who really knows? As is typical Google fashion, the Google Analytics Terms of Service, coupled with the Google Privacy Policy, are not clear cut and provide Google with ample discretionary room for exclusions, disclaimers and general “outs” to suit its purposes, whatever they may be.

Google Analytics offers marketing speak assurances about the sanctity of others’ business data:

Google takes the trust people place in us very seriously, and is pledged to safeguard the privacy of your corporate data. We understand that web analytics data is sensitive information, so we accord it the ironclad protection it deserves.

"Customer Data" means the data concerning the characteristics and activities of visitors to your website that is collected through use of the UTM and then forwarded to the Servers and analyzed by the Processing Software. "Servers" means the servers controlled by Google (or its wholly owned subsidiaries) upon which the Processing Software and Customer Data are stored.

Information Rights. Google and its wholly owned subsidiaries may retain and use, subject to the terms of its Privacy Policy, information collected in Your use of the Service. Google will not share information associated with You or your Site with any third parties unless Google (i) has Your consent; (ii) concludes that it is required by law or has a good faith belief that access, preservation or disclosure of such information is reasonably necessary to protect the rights, property or safety of Google, its users or the public; or (iii) provides such information in certain limited circumstances to third parties to carry out tasks on Google's behalf (e.g., billing or data storage) with strict restrictions that prevent the data from being used or shared except as directed by Google . When this is done, it is subject to agreements that oblige those parties to process such information only on Google's instructions and in compliance with this Agreement and appropriate confidentiality and security measures.

Sounds good? The umbrella privacy policy which governs all Google actions leaves the Google door open for Google Analytics collected data “auditing, research and analysis,” by Google.

Google wants to “organize” all the world’s information for “safekeeping” on its servers throughout the world. Companies’ customer data, however, ought to be treated as mission critical, and therefore as proprietary.

The best place for proprietary safekeeping is in-house, the second best is a secure, disinterested, neutral third-party service provider.

The number one search engine and search advertising engine and contextual advertising engine and soon display advertising engine…is not a neutral third-party service vendor.

Moreover, it competes directly against all of the “search engines and referral sources” that it tracks in Google Analytics.

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