Background
GOV.UK use Google Analytics to measure how the website is used. There are 4 types of cookies:
- Essential - these remember your progress though a form (always need to be on)
- Website usage via Google Analytics
- Communications and marketing - do things like measure how you view YouTube videos that are on GOV.UK
- Cookies that remember your settings to personalised your experience of using the website
In the light of updated guidance from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) the Government Digital Service (GDS) reviewed the cookie policy for GOV.UK. The ICO have been taking a more robust interpretation of Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). These regulations say that "You must tell people if you set cookies, and clearly explain what the cookies do and why. You must also get the user’s consent. Consent must be actively and clearly given."
Changes have been made to the cookie consent model to remain compliant with the newest guidelines. GDS has adopted an explicit informed consent (or 'opt-in') mechanism. This change was implemented on the 20th December 2019. As a consequence of this action Google analytics will only capture activity from users that have opted-in to he use of analytics cookies.
As a result, there has been an impact on central GOV.UK platform analytics. From others’ experience, we were expecting to lose up to 80% of past data volumes at least initially. If you use Google Analytics, or any dashboards to view user interactions, you may see that page views and user numbers dropped significantly.
How big the actual drop will be in the longer term and how representative the new activity will be compared to all users are questions that as yet GDS are unable to answer. Work began at GSI and other government departments to begin to understand the data that is still being collected but the current situation with COVID-19 has curtained this work for the time being.
So what can we do to understand and communicate the data we have?
The first thing to say is that the data has never been complete issues with Javascript, Google sign-in and the previous cookie 'opt-out' model (think of all those "not set" countries and cities and "not provided" keywords)
- Explain that the data is not complete
- Round and bucket results. Forget decimal places, round things to the nearest 10 / 100/ 1,000 as appropriate to emphasise that these figures are not precise.
- Offer trends instead
- Use terms that communicate uncertainty - 'based on the data available', or 'approximately', to show that the figures aren't exact.
Notes
cookies are files saved on your phone, tablet or computer when you visit a website
GOV.UK use Google Analytics to measure how you use the website (Google do not use or share this data)
More robust interpretation of Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR)
PECR "get a person's consent to store cookies on there device"
20th December 2019 policy on GOV.UK changed
GOV.UK set 4 types of cookie
- Essential - these remember your progress though a form (always need to be on)
- website usage - Google Analytics
- communications and marketing
- settings
GOV.UK uses cookies to track user journeys
From Government Digital service (GDS)
"As you'll be aware, GDS has moved to the cookie consent model on GOV.UK; we have adopted an explicit informed consent (or ‘opt-in’) mechanism. This will apply to the central GOV.UK platform and GDS-owned services, where possible. "
"The changes have been made to address how we comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR)."
What does this mean?
As a result, there will be an impact on central GOV.UK platform analytics. From others’ experience, we expect to lose up to 80% of current data volumes at least initially. If you use Google Analytics, or any dashboards to view user interactions, you may see that pageview and user numbers drop significantly.
we can now only capture activity from users that have opted-in to the use of analytics cookies.
How big that drop will be and how representative the new activity will be compared to all users are questions we're currently thinking about, but it will take some time to gather sufficient data to make robust comparisons.
Communicate uncertainty
Offer trends instead.
My guess in your case would be to take an appropriate group of pages and report on the percentage that each page accounts for, over time. Ideally running back before the cookie change (appeared in data December 20th).
That might provide evidence that the level of concern has increased by however much and it's easy to communicate in a chart.
Round and bucket results. Forget decimal places, round things to the nearest 10 / 100/ 1,000 as appropriate to emphasise that these figures are not precise.
Would also add to consider the words used to communicate the caveats, for example using phrases such as:
'based on the data available, then …',
'if we use this info. as a proxy for… then we see that …',
'approximately …'
etc.
to show that the figures aren't exact.
Another option is to present a range … ' the data indicates the results are within x and y'.