There has been a bit of concern recently in the analytics community about the new version of Internet Explorer and its potential ability to significantly increase the number of Internet users who delete or block 
cookies from their browser.
I read this and had a moment of panic.
For those of you who don’t know, it is just about impossible for any web analytics or optimization product to collect historical data without the use of a cookie. Without the cookie, you lose recency, frequency, and historical behavior and conversion information. For any web tool that generates reports, this is a significant loss of data and customer value. For more info on what cookies are, click here.
Why would Microsoft help people to delete information that a multi-billion dollar industry (eCommerce) needs to survive? The answer is a bit too long for this blog, but has to do visitor (and legislator) concern over abuse of personal information, as well as unfounded fears about viruses and spyware.
About a year and a half ago we had a similar fear about IE7, which would set off security alerts for every website which runs third party cookies (advertising cookies). We had to completely change the way we deploy our product to make sure that our cookie would be served as a first party one by each customer. Suffice it to say, it was not a fun transition.
So I started emailing the CTO at Sitebrand, talking to colleagues and reading the WA forum to see what other people think about the potential impact of massive increases in cookie blocking and deletion. Most of the feedback was resoundingly grim…..
Enter Jim Sterne, one of the founders of the WAA. I am going to print his thoughts on the WA forum in their entirely below. I can’t say it any better than he can, and it made me have a ‘eureka moment’: There is nothing creepy about cookies, as long as you earn the right to use them. If your visitors are deleting or blocking your cookies, you have bigger things to worry about than data accuracy.
So worst case scenario, the new version of Internet Explorer increases cookie block and deletion rates from 3% to 30% for your average website. Your cookie deletion rate becomes less of a data accuracy issue and more of a KPI on site value to visitors. It can be monitored, marketed and managed like your bounce rates.
Thinking of cookies this way, as a indicator of visitor engagement rather than a pure technical component of web analytics, is a major departure from current thinking. It is also the right way to view cookies as we migrate towards analytics/web 2.0
Thanks to Jim for the concise (and funny) reminder that website visitors SHOULD have control, and that we as online marketers create a forum for the best application of that control, i.e. to engage MY website and business instead of my competitors.
Cheers,
Jim
(Jim Sterne Post to WA Forum, Thursday August 21st)
Giving control to customers (visitors) is always the right move. It then places the responsibility on the marketer to offer sufficiently significant value that the customer is willing to exchange personal data.
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