GVU's Sixth WWW User Survey Privacy Graphs

What Information Ought To Be Collected Per Page Request

Notes:

If users were given their way, how would they implement the protocols with respect to what information is available to be logged per page requested over the WWW? Three out of four users agree that sites ought to be able to record the page that is requested (76.60%) and the time of the page request (74.42%). Under half (43.71%) feel that the browser that users are using ought to be loggable. The machine name/addres (27.00%), the operating system the user operates (26.83%), the user's email address (21.03%), and the location of the user (19.70%) were all not high on people's list of this to record per page request. It is interesting to note that all of the above information except email and location can be reliably gathered for every page request by most users of the WWW. When asked about an identifier that would uniquely label users across sessions at a site, less than one out of every five (19.08%) thought that this should be possible. Yet, identifiers already exist and are widely supported by browsers, aka cookies. There is already evidence of controversy surrounding the use and lack of control over cookies by technically savvy portions of the user community and the advertising community that desires fine grain measurement of usage. Wonder how it will all pan out!

Table of Data for All Categories

What Information Ought to be Collected per Page Request	All	Male	Female	USA	Europe	19-25	26-50	50+
Don t Know	692.00 9.20%	404.00 8.00%	268.00 11.88%	562.00 9.24%	35.00 8.29%	108.00 8.01%	398.00 9.01%	98.00 11.25%
Email Address	1582.00 21.03%	989.00 19.59%	533.00 23.64%	1279.00 21.03%	83.00 19.67%	230.00 17.06%	892.00 20.20%	255.00 29.28%
Location	1482.00 19.70%	981.00 19.43%	451.00 20.00%	1087.00 17.87%	125.00 29.62%	268.00 19.88%	849.00 19.23%	177.00 20.32%
Machine	2031.00 27.00%	1522.00 30.14%	453.00 20.09%	1580.00 25.98%	148.00 35.07%	429.00 31.82%	1195.00 27.07%	177.00 20.32%
OS	2018.00 26.83%	1527.00 30.24%	439.00 19.47%	1613.00 26.52%	135.00 31.99%	403.00 29.90%	1210.00 27.41%	172.00 19.75%
Requested Page	5762.00 76.60%	3947.00 78.17%	1660.00 73.61%	4668.00 76.75%	327.00 77.49%	1045.00 77.52%	3435.00 77.80%	635.00 72.90%
Session ID	1435.00 19.08%	1085.00 21.49%	307.00 13.61%	1137.00 18.69%	103.00 24.41%	270.00 20.03%	885.00 20.05%	132.00 15.15%
Time of Request	5598.00 74.42%	3872.00 76.69%	1574.00 69.80%	4555.00 74.89%	301.00 71.33%	1019.00 75.59%	3331.00 75.45%	619.00 71.07%
Which Browser	3288.00 43.71%	2448.00 48.48%	759.00 33.66%	2656.00 43.67%	206.00 48.82%	654.00 48.52%	1994.00 45.16%	265.00 30.42%

For more information or to submit comments:
send e-mail to www-survey@cc.gatech.edu.
GVU's WWW Surveying Team
Graphics, Visualization, & Usability Center
College of Computing
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA 30332-0280