This document describes if and how Intelligent Tracking Prevention and similar technologies affect Webtrends Optimize, and your ability to run experiments and personalise to users.

Apple-owned Safari spearheaded an assault on third-party tracking, namely taking aim at Facebook and Google.

Their premise was simple – these tools should not be allowed to use third-party cookies to recognise an individual as they browse across multiple websites. Quite often, this would happen unwittingly for both the user and website owner, with iframes to deliver facebook like counts and similar technology quietly harvesting this information.

Some of these imposed changes affect Web Analytics and AB Testing vendors.

Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) is a feature implemented in Apple's Safari web browser to protect user privacy by limiting the tracking capabilities of cookies and other web technologies.

There have been several versions of ITP released, each with its own set of rules and restrictions:

Safari ensures that storage only persists for 7 days max. This makes retargeting difficult/impossible, with returning-user segments older than 7 days no longer functioning. Beyond this, the core ability of the product to function remains unaffected.

Enhanced Tracking Protection is Firefox’s version of ITP, and looks to protect users’ privacy while they browse. It blocks trackers that follow you around online to collect information about your browsing habits and interests without breaking site functionality. It also includes protections against harmful scripts, such as malware that drains your battery.

ETP looks to protect users from:

This is enabled by default in the Standard mode of Firefox. This confines every cookie to the website where it was created and prevents cookies from tracking you across sites.

Does this affect Webtrends Optimize? – NO

Webtrends Optimize does not show up on the list for any of the categories mentioned above, including cross-site tracking cookies and tracking content.

Webtrends Optimize does not rely on third-party cookies for its operation, and as such being limited to a single domain is not a problem at all. We do not, nor do we have any intention to, track users as they travel across multiple websites.

If your website operates across multiple domains though, you will be unable to use our third-party cookie option – please keep this in mind.

In their words: Strict Mode also includes Enhanced Cookie Clearing, which allows users to clear third-party cookies more effectively.

Browsing the web leaves data behind in your browser. A site may set cookies to keep you logged in, or store preferences in your browser. There are also less obvious kinds of site data, such as caches that improve performance, or offline data which allows web applications to work without an internet connection. Firefox itself also stores data safely on your computer about sites you have visited, including your browsing history or site-specific settings and permissions.

Firefox allows you to clear all cookies and other site data for individual websites. Data clearing can be used to hide your identity from a site by deleting all data that is accessible to the site. In addition, it can be used to wipe any trace of having visited the site from your browsing history.

Does this affect Webtrends Optimize? – NO.

The targeting of third-party cookies here does not affect customers of Webtrends Optimize, given we do not need these to operate.

If a user chooses to clear all of their cookies using the new shortcuts provided here, this will clear Optimize data too. But we consider this to be expected behaviour and not a consequence or problem.

No core mechanism of Webtrends Optimize is affected by ITP. Beyond limited-term cookie storage at 7 days, there is currently no impact on Webtrends Optimize, and we are not blocked from operation.