Products
Webtrends Analytics 9.x
Cause
Various regulators consider IP addresses to be personal data and subject them to the same protection. This leads to complexities as routing of traffic (which constitute processing) is a technical requirement of using the Internet. To help our clients, Webtrends makes available functionality to disable the storage and processing of complete IP addresses.
Does Webtrends support IP-less tracking?Yes. Customers can configure Webtrends Data Collection functionality to anonymize visitors (using a manual override).
Does Webtrends collect any other personal data?
No. By default Webtrends On Demand doesn’t collect any other personal data. It is our customers’ responsibility to ensure that any personal data is included in the query parameters (both standard and custom) passed in the URL for data collection are done so in compliance with the law.
Resolution
Replace the IP address with a hard-coded value. This method changes the IP address used, but retains the Webtrends cookie storage method for keeping visitor ID. Customers can specify a fixed IP, such as 192.168.0.1, in Webtrends’ DCSCIP parameter in the Javascript tag to ensure anonymity. The value of the DCSCIP parameter will be recorded in the client ip (c-ip) field in the web server log. Add this META tag to the page header: <meta name=”DCS.dcscip” content=”192.168.0.1” />. If meta tags are not possible, custom JavaScript may be required. For example: “_tag.DCS.dcscfg=192.168.0.1;”. Also modify the <noscript> portion of the tag:
<noscript>
<figure><img alt="DCSIMG" id="DCSIMG" width="1" height="1" src="http://<data collector domain>/<dcsid>/njs.gif?dcsuri=/nojavascript&WT.js=No&WT.tv=9.3.0&dcssip=www.test.com&dcscfg=1&dcscip=192.168.0.1"></figure><div></div>
</noscript>More Information
EU Directive – http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/09/st03/st03674.en09.pdf(in English)
Official FAQ on Transfers of Personal Data out of the EU–http://ec.europa.eu/justice/policies/privacy/docs/international_transfers_faq/international_transfers_faq.pdf(in English)
Germany’s Telemedia Act – http://www.datenschutz-berlin.de/attachments/630/Duess_Kreis_Nov2009_Ausgestaltung_von_Analyseverfahren.pdf?1259660867(in German)
Webtrends’ Privacy Statement – https://www.webtrends.com/legal/privacy-statement/(in English)