Measuring Without Collecting More Than You Need

What the default configuration collects

More than most owners realise, and much of it is never used.

A standard installation records device and browser details, approximate location, the pages visited and in what order, how somebody arrived, and identifiers that allow a visitor to be recognised across visits and sometimes across sites.

Some of that answers real questions. Much of it exists because the tool was built for advertisers with different needs from a plumbing business.

The relevant point for a small business: information you collect is information you are responsible for, and you cannot be responsible for something you never gathered.

What you actually need

The list is shorter than the default.

• How many people visited and the trend.
• Which pages they arrived on.
• Where they came from, at a channel level.
• Whether they were on a phone.
• Whether they enquired.
• Roughly where they were, at city level, to confirm they are in your area.

None of that requires following individuals across sites, and all of it is available from a configuration collecting substantially less.

The Canadian position

Worth being clear about, since most advice on this subject is written for elsewhere.

Canadian private-sector privacy law applies to personal information collected in commercial activity, with federal legislation and separate statutes in British Columbia, Alberta, and Quebec.

Meaningful consent is a core requirement, which means people should understand what is being collected and why. Quebec's requirements have moved further than the rest of the country in recent years, including around tracking technologies.

You may also have obligations elsewhere. If you have visitors from Europe or the United Kingdom, or customers there, other regimes may apply regardless of where your business sits.

The practical response is not to become an expert. It is to collect less, be honest about what you collect, and make the privacy statement accurate.

Settings worth changing today

1. Turn off advertising and remarketing features unless you are actively using them, since they are frequently on by default and are the most intrusive collection.
2. Reduce the data retention period to the shortest that still lets you compare year over year.
3. Exclude your own visits, which improves the data and reduces collection.
4. Turn off any cross-device or identity linking you are not using.
5. Check what is actually installed, since sites accumulate tracking scripts nobody chose.

The first is the one that matters most and takes two minutes. A small business not running remarketing campaigns has no reason to be collecting for them.

The lighter alternatives

Worth knowing about, since they solve the problem structurally.

Privacy-focused analytics tools exist that do not use cookies or persistent identifiers, do not track individuals across sites, and produce aggregate reporting.

They give you visits, pages, sources, and devices. They do not give you individual journeys, cross-site behaviour, or the advertising integrations.

For a business that reads a monthly summary and wants to know whether enquiries are rising, that is the whole requirement, and the trade is minimal.

Several are Canadian or European, host data accordingly, and some are self-hostable. Where a client asks where your data sits, that is a straightforward answer to have.

The consent banner question

Handled honestly, because most small business banners are performative.

A banner that appears, sets everything regardless of what is clicked, and offers no genuine choice is not consent. It is an inconvenience that provides no protection.

Two workable positions. Collect only what does not require consent, in which case you may not need a banner at all and can simply explain your practices. Or implement consent properly, meaning nothing non-essential loads until somebody agrees.

The first is simpler, cheaper, faster for visitors, and better for the site, which is why it is the sensible default for a small business.

Third-party embeds complicate this, since a map, a video, or a chat widget may set cookies before anybody consents. That is another reason to audit what is running.

The privacy statement

It should describe what actually happens.

A generic template naming tools you do not use, or omitting ones you do, is worse than a short accurate statement, because it is a representation about your practices that is not true.

What to cover: what you collect through the site, what you collect through forms, who else receives it, how long you keep it, and how to contact you about it.

Half a page written honestly beats four pages of template, and it is the document somebody asks for when a question arises.

The point worth ending on

Collecting less does not cost a small business anything it was using.

The reporting that changes decisions is coarse: visits, sources, devices, and enquiries. The granular collection exists for purposes most small businesses do not have, and carrying it means carrying the obligation without the benefit, which is the same minimisation argument set out in collecting only what you need.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.