Webtrends Optimize does not behave the way traditional web analytics platforms do, in collecting "everything" by default. Instead, we are the opposite - the platform collects very little by default.
On pageview
When users enter your experiments, we may/will capture:
Event name - "pageview"
Experience IDs - account, project, experience, variant
User agent - from which we will interpret browser name and device type
Date/time
IP Address - from which we will interpret geolocation and weather.
Note that many customers choose to not collect IP addresses, which disables IPs and geolocation data from being saved.
All of this can be verified by yourself by extracting our data - this gives you access to everything we are holding about that experiment.
On metric capture
Users have the ability to measure any customer behaviour via. the provided APIs and mechanisms.
This typically includes behaviour like:
Certain pages browsed into, e.g. basket, delivery, checkout, confirmation page
Clicks and scrolls on key elements/pages
Errors and other negative user behaviour
For this behaviour, we capture the same metadata as pageviews.
For product recommendations
To power product recommendations, Webtrends Optimize is typically fed:
Detailed purchase records (order id, products purchased)
Product feed (e.g. Google Shopping feed, to know what's available on the website).
Note that custom implementations may be based off additional custom data.
For social proofing
No additional data beyond past and current browsing activity is typically required for Social Proofing, although the service allows us to have custom implementations.
Social proofing is powered by aggregating "recent browsing" data to deliver messages like "20 people have bought this product today".
Other use cases
In principle, users could pass any data they choose to into our system. As you've seen above, we do not capture more than is necessary by default, but users can use or misuse the platform to capture anything additional they choose to.
The ability to do so is critical to flexibility and accuracy when validating new concepts for experimentation and research. E.g. "we're testing a new banner and want to measure clicks on it" or "we're running a survey to see where people found our company from".
Inferred and interpreted data
Webtrends Optimize, for some customers, will have inferred or interpreted data that is also captured.
For example, knowing if a customer is a new or returning visitor, if they have purchased in the past, where they have browsed and therefore what product types they have an affinity for, etc.
Things we do not wish to capture
Webtrends Optimize does not capture, and does not permit users to capture:
Personal information - DOB, Passport numbers, drivers license, Social security numbers, biometric data
Payment details - Credit card numbers, account details, etc.
Protected Health Information (PHI) - medical records, health insurance data, patient history etc.
Data from children - without parental consent.
Capturing this data violates our terms of service.