Google Analytics Down YAY! Declare Webmaster Independence, from Google
Do YOU know where your Google Analytics data is? More importantly, do you REALLY want Google to know all about YOUR Website data?
Who needs Google Analytics! Now more than ever: All is not well in the data cloud for the number one search engine that aspires to rule “Search, Ads and Apps.”
How So? Google is NOT serving up Google Analytics in a timely fashion.
Google nevertheless touts: “Web analytics has moved from being a niche function to becoming a mainstream aspect of the business for companies of all sizes.”
YES: In other words, Web analytics is a mission critical function. It should be handled accordingly then, in-house or with a neutral third-party, BUT NOT THROUGH GOOGLE!
WHY NOT? Google owned Analytics is not an arms length, neutral third party. Google has a vested interest in knowing and understanding Google Analytics third-party Webmaster data resulting from both AdWords campaigns and advertising campaigns placed with competitors.
What does Google do with all the Website activity information it tracks and manipulates about what is going on the Web properties of others?
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 the business data it extracts from Websites:
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.
In its legal speak, however, Google is not so iron clad about the “sanctity” of the information it gleans from the Web operations of third-parties.
Below are excerpts of the Google Analytics documentation: How Google defines “Customer Data” that it collects on the customers of the Websites that use Google Analytics and what it says it has the right to do with the data it collects from the Google Analytics tracked Websites.
“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.
The referenced Google umbrella privacy policy which governs all Google actions leaves the Google door wide 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 indeed 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 service provider.
The number one search engine and search advertising engine and contextual advertising engine and feed manager and soon display advertising engine…is not a neutral third-party service vendor. What’s more, Google competes directly against all of the “search engines and referral sources” that it tracks in Google Analytics.
Moral of the Google Analytics story? Declare Webmaster independence: Ditch it, now!
ALSO BEWARE: How Google Owns YOUR FeedBurner History and How Commtouch Wins in Google Postini Enterprise Battle and Google GrandCentral: Who Needs Wiretaps?