[ziddoap]

My 2c:

1) Don't go overboard. GA is one thing. GA plus twenty other obscure analytics cookies and scripts is another. If your site looks like [1], there is 0 chance of ever being on my white-list for ads.

2) Just be honest and transparent. You don't need a big "WE USE COOKIESSSSSS" banner, but a short little message along the lines of "We use GA to help develop a better experience for you. All data is in aggregate, and not identifiable. Please consider white-listing our website if you would like to participate in making this website even better".

[1] https://imgur.com/a/7AHbQ5E

[kylerpalmer]

Thanks for the tips. How do you feel about anonymized only vs aggregated. For example: in-app (where user info is available to you) do you carry out any behavior tracking, a/b testing, etc?

[ziddoap]

So, again this is just for myself as a consumer, it's all about approach.

Ideally when I visit a site I'd like to see minimal tracking by default with an opt-in model. If a site tracks the bare minimum by default and unobtrusively asks me if I'd be okay with sharing a little bit more (or participating in certain testing, etc.) I will generally say yes. Showing me you care enough to let me opt-in vastly increases my trust in you as a provider. Opt-in is best, opt-out is not ideal but acceptible if clear and easy, no option = no whitelist.

Also, I think if you are asking as a privacy conscious startup, you should consider taking a step back and really asking yourself how much you really need to track. What is essential vs. what is nice to have? Anything that you implement that is non-essential is another step away from being privacy conscious, in my books at least.

We're living in a time where the default seems to be to track as many data points as possible, then figure out if they are relevent/useful. This is backwards. Implement the absolute minimum and see how it goes. A month down the road you might realize you desperately need to see X metric, so you implement X tracking. However, and more likely in my opinion, is that you realize that X metric adds minimal value to you - yet it tracks significantly more PII from your customers. It's all about balance.