Privacy overview
Last update: Thu Mar 07 2024 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Adobe wants to enable your organization so that you can comply with applicable laws and regulations. See Adobe Experience Cloud privacy for more information. Between Adobe Analytics and your organization, Adobe acts as a “data processor” and you are the “data controller” (or equivalent under applicable privacy and data protection laws). It is up to your organization to disclose how you use Adobe’s products and services because your organization exclusively controls how to implement Adobe’s solutions. While using Adobe Analytics, your organization is responsible for complying with your own privacy policy, your service agreement with Adobe, and all applicable laws.
Adobe strongly recommends adhering to the following overarching concepts:
- If you collect personal data, make sure that you comply with privacy laws and regulations. Custom variables allow you to collect virtually anything that you can access; however, you must also consider your organization’s privacy policy and applicable laws.
- Provide easy-to-find and easy-to-understand privacy information for your organization to your customers. Helpful information includes opt-out links, how their browsing data is used, and how you use or plan to use Adobe’s services.
- Be aware of both local laws and international laws that apply to you. If your organization operates at a global scale, some international laws can apply.
Data collection breakdown
Adobe offers multiple data collection libraries to assist in sending data to Adobe. Notable examples include:
- AppMeasurement: A library designed to send data directly to Adobe Analytics.
- Web SDK: A library designed to send data to the Adobe Experience Platform Edge network, which then forwards that data to Adobe Analytics.
- Tags: A web-based UI that allows you to configure your implementation without requiring access to a website or app’s source code beyond the initial tag implementation. Extensions are available for both AppMeasurement and the Web SDK.
Adobe Analytics can collect the following types of data:
Type of data
Details
Example variables containing this data
Page names or URLs of web pages on your site
This data is required for Adobe Analytics to function. A URL or page name is required for every hit.
Time-based data
This data is required for Adobe Analytics to function. A timestamp is required for data collection, and time-based data is derived from the timestamp.
Referrer data
Data collection libraries collect the referring URL by default when a visitor arrives to your website. You can customize your implementation to collect data within a referrer’s query string. This practice is common for campaigns and tracking ad performance.
Anonymized visitor ID’s
Data collection libraries generate and reference a visitor ID for each browser visiting your site. This ID is stored in a cookie. If a data collection library cannot set a cookie identifier, the library uses a fallback method of anonymous visitor identification. This method involves tying related hits to the same visit using the visitor’s IP address and user agent string. If your organization has IP obfuscation enabled, this setting is honored. See
Adobe Analytics and browser cookies for more information.
Identifiable visitor ID’s
Adobe does not automatically collect custom visitor IDs. However, you can customize your implementation to collect this data.
External search terms
External search data includes keywords that originate from search engines. Data collection libraries look for this data based on the referring URL. However, many modern search engines no longer include this information.
Internal search terms
Internal search data includes keywords that originate from within your website or app’s search capabilities. Adobe does not automatically collect internal search data. However, you can customize your implementation to collect this data. This practice is common for organizations who use Adobe Analytics.
Computer and browser specifications
Data collection libraries automatically collect low entropy browser hints, such as the browser type, operating system type, and if the device is desktop or mobile. Custom configuration is required to collect high entropy hints, such as the browser’s specific version/build, the device model, or the operating system version. See
Client hints overview for more information.
Geolocation information
Adobe offers the ability to prevent detailed geo location by setting the last octet of an IP address to 0. This makes geo information less precise and can be set in
report suite settings.
IP address
Adobe offers the ability to obfuscate (hash) or fully remove the visitor’s IP address when storing this data. EMEA customers typically have the IP address setting obfuscated by default. Regardless of obfuscation setting, IP address is not available as a dimension in Analysis Workspace; it is only included in
Data feeds. See
General account settings in the Admin guide for details around available obfuscation settings.
None
Form information provided on your site
All implementation types require configuration to collect this data. You can include this data in custom variables.
Clicked ads or links on your site
Products purchased on your site
All implementation types require configuration to collect this data. Adobe offers several default variables to collect this information.
See the navigation menu under Dimensions overview and Metrics overview for more variables that Adobe can potentially collect data under.
Data processing locations
Adobe maintains three data processing locations for Adobe Analytics. These sites receive raw data and process it into a report suite, which is optimized for data storage and reporting retrieval. These data processing locations currently reside in the United States (Oregon), the United Kingdom (London), and Singapore. See Adobe Analytics security overview for more information.