My question is in reference to section 7 of the TOS. It seems as though GA automatically tracks and/or collects user email addresses if you tag links in an HTML email. I found an article that outlines how GA does this. Here is the article:

http://www.campaignmonitor.com/help/topic.aspx?t=112#subscribers

By doing this, is GA violating their own TOS? Or is this dependent upon how the user has configured the tagged links?

What a great idea! I’m going to start doing the same thing with our clients.

Thanks for sharing.

Justin

For any GA accounts we set up for clients (in their name), we PDF the TOS at time of account setup and send it to the client, stressing that the GA account is their account and they have to agree and accept the TOS by using the GA script on their website. If they have any problems with the TOS, these issues need to be addressed ASAP before work proceeds to add the script, create profiles, filters, etc.

Aside from the privacy policy, organizations need to pay attention to section 8, Indemnification. This clause may cause angst with some legal departments.

Process, process, process :)

Cheers,

June

Problem is, the form data submitted to the offline conversion engine of course contains all sorts of personally identifiable information. Users know full well that they’re entering and submitting this information, and the whole process is voluntary; nevertheless, it is PII. Is there no way to then to use GA to marry keyword and clickstream data to individual transactions if the conversion takes place elsewhere? If the conversion process were entirely online, I’d be using the same data in the same way to the same end, but since GA would strip all PII, I’d never come into conflict with the TOS. The further irony is that I couldn’t care less about marrying clickstream data with individual identities–the only thing important to me is transactions–but identities are all that link the visitor who submits that form to the sale that takes place later, offline. I don’t want to wind up stuck just because my data could technically be reorganized to document clickstream data identity by identity.

The business for which this data is being collected sells products that amount to enormous capital investments. Transactions of this magnitude aren’t typically executed online, though they frequently start there. Am I right in perceving that the GA terms of service might rule out using the GA cookies to feed offline conversion tracking?

You make a great point. Many of the smaller/mid-size companies that we work with do not have a PP.

As for enforcement, I’m not sure who’s responsibility that is. I know that, as a GAAC, we always advice our clients to follow the GA TOS. We can’t make them do that, but most do follow our advice. I think it makes sense for Google to enforce the policy in the future as GA is their product.

Thanks for adding to the discussion,

Justin

But then again, who is going to enforce it? Google? The GAACs?