privacy and tracking

[brynn]

Hi Friends,
We'll be using some web analytics software called Piwik, to measure activity on Inkscape Community, and to help us make the proper decisions for growth and management of the website.  I realize that some people including me have strong feelings about how this kind of tracking can be used, for not so admirable reasons.  So I want to spell it out clearly for you, and hope you'll feel ok about allowing us to gather this info, so we can make the best decisions for the site.  And I also want to provide you the opportunity to opt out, if you choose.

Please find all the info here 

(Also, please feel free to reply here, or start a new topic, if you have any questions or comments about this.)

[ha1flosse]

.. the piwik integration and privacy practices seem ok at first sight, but i generally don't like to get tracked and analyzed. so i would like to "always opt-out". this setting is available in firefox too and seems to be a common practice. is it possible to set to always opt-out of tracking all the data and analyzing it in profile settings and set to logging the minimum needed for accessing the forum/webpage/server of inkscapecommunity.com?

[brynn]

On this page:
http://forum.inkscapecommunity.com/index.php?page=29

you can opt out.  If your browser already is blocking it, you will see

"You are not being tracked since your browser is reporting that you do not want to. This is a setting of your browser so you won't be able to opt-in until you disable the 'Do Not Track' feature."

If there is nothing in your browser that's blocking the tracking, you'll see a check box.  Then all you need to do is click the box, and you won't be tracked  :-)

That is for blocking Piwik above. 

I think there might be a way to block you from some of the tracking on the server.  (because I think I blocked myself, since I'm here all the time)  Although I rarely look at it, and I only care about number of visitors, not any specific visitor.  But I'll investigate.  Do you always visit from the same IP address?  If you're behind a proxy, you're basically anonymous, everywhere you go.  And I can't block you if you're behind a proxy (because your IP is always changing).

For the SMF forum software, there is some tracking there.  Look in your profile, and under Profile Info, people can see some info about your activity on the site (Show Posts, Show Stats).  You're right, it seems like there should be some way to opt out of that.  I don't see it in the profile options.  But I might be able to disable it for the whole site.  I will investigate, and let you know what I learn 

[ha1flosse]

allright, just forgot to enable the "do-not-track" in my browser..

just 2 questions left:

1) why does the user have to choose the ‎period of validity of the session cookie when logging in?
2) are all cookies cleared on the server side by logging out?

bye

[brynn]

1 -- I don't know.  That's just how the software is made.  If you choose forever, you'll be logged in for a very long time.  It's not really "forever", or "always", because every now and then, when we work on the site or the server, everyone gets logged out.  Or sometimes you might want or need to log yourself out. 

But if you'd rather only be logged in for each session, choose a very short time when you log in.  Whatever the amount of time you choose is the life of the cookie.  I'm not positive, but I think if the cookie expires while you're still logged and using the site, you stay logged in until you leave the site.  I don't think it logs you out the moment the cookie expires, if you're still on the site.  But I could be wrong....

I think if you click the Login tab, in the navigation menu,  instead of using the quick login in the top-right corner, you can enter zero in the  "Minutes to Stay Logged In" field.  I haven't tried it, but it looks like it might be possible.

2 -- I'm not sure if I completely understand what you're asking.  The cookie is a small bit of code that the website gives to the user (user's computer).  And the website has communication with the cookie about how long you want to stay logged on.  But I don't think there's anything specific to you, the user, that's kept on the server.  Well, not related to the cookie anyway.  Of course your user account (email address and password) remain until the website closes or you delete your account.  Once the user deletes their cookie, the website can no longer communicate with the user's computer (about log in time, in the case of session cookies).

Besides the options when you log in, about how long you want to be logged in, there are usually a Lot of options in your browser about handling cookies.  I guess most modern browsers can delete all your cookies when you close the browser.  Once the cookies are deleted, the website can no longer communicate with them.  The next time you visit or log in to the site, it will offer you new cookies.  And you can set your browser whether you want to accept them or not.

[brynn]

Ok, and regarding the tracking.  None of the analytics apps installed on the server identify individual users.  At least not as far as I can tell.  I had a server upgrade a while back.  And the apps available before that upgrade, I do remember blocking my own IP address.  But I can't find any way to do it now, and I can't find where IP addresses are showing up at all (not user IP addresses).  But I rarely look at them anyway.  When I do look at them, I'm looking at visitor numbers and visited pages, and not specific visitors.

And the forum doesn't do any tracking.

So you're good to go