14 KiB
ins: F. Ring
name: Frederik Ring
organization: Offen
email: frederik.ring@gmail.com
- ins: H. Niefeld name: Hendrik Niefeld organization: Offen email: hello@niefeld.com
normative: informative:
--- abstract
Privacy has become an important feature for users of websites and services. This document propopes a well-defined way for websites and services to disclose their usage of analytics and tracking software to users and tooling used by users. analytics.txt aims to be an elaborate standard that describes the usage of analytics and tracking software in a non-biased way that is understandable both for a non-technical audience, but also useful for consumption by tools and software.
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Introduction
The usage of analytics software and user tracking on websites is becoming an increasingly important factor for users on the internet. Yet, there is no well-defined way of accessing such information in a standardized way. Legislation only covers certain technological implementations, incentivizing software to find workarounds, thus being able hiding their presence from users. Automated audits are limited to aspects that are possible to detect in clients.
This document defines a way to specify the privacy related characteristics of analytics and tracking software. We aim for this information to be consumable both by humans as well as other software. For example, search engines or browser extensions could make use of this data and display information to users.
The file "analytics.txt" is not intended to replace the requirement for complying to certain regulations, but supposed to give insights beyond the scope of these regulations.
Scope of the term "analytics" in this document
TODO define analytics
Conventions and Definitions
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 {{!RFC2119}} {{!RFC8174}} when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.
The term "implementors" refers to the providers of services and websites that wish to use an analytics.txt file.
Specification
This document defines a text file format that can be used by implementors to signal information about their usage of analytics software to both users and other software.
By convention, this file is called analytics.txt. Its location and scope are described in {{location}}.
This text file contains multiple fields with different values. A field contains a "name" which is the first part of a field all the way up to the colon (for example: "Autho:") and follows the syntax defined for "field-name" in section 3.6.8 of {{?RFC5322}}. Field names are case-insensitive (as per section 2.3 of {{?RFC5234}}). The "value" comes after the field name and follows the syntax defined for "unstructured" in section 3.2.5 of {{?RFC5322}}. The file MAY also contain blank lines.
A field MUST always consist of a name and a value (for example: "Author: Jane Doe jane.doe@example.com"). An analytics.txt file can have an unlimited number of fields. Each field MUST appear on its own line. Unless specified otherwise by the field definition, multiple values MUST be chained together for a single field (for example: "Compliance: gdpr, ccpa") using the "," (%x2c). Unless otherwise indicated in a definition of a particular field, a field MAY NOT appear multiple times.
Implementors should be aware that some of the fields may contain URIs using percent-encoding (as per section 2.1 of {{?RFC3986}}).
Implementors SHOULD aim for creating an analytics.txt file that is easy to understand by non-technical audiences.
Comments
Any line beginning with the "#" (%x23) symbol MUST be interpreted as a comment. The content of the comment may contain any ASCII or Unicode characters in the %x21-7E and %x80-FFFFF ranges plus the tab (%x09) and space (%x20) characters.
Example:
# A comment
Implementors SHOULD make deliberate use of comments to make an analytics.txt file more accessible for non-technical audiences.
Line Separators
Every line MUST end either with a carriage return and line feed characters (CRLF / %x0D %x0A) or just a line feed character (LF / %x0A).
Extensibility
Like many other formats and protocols, this format may need to be extended over time to fit the ever-changing landscape of the Internet. Special attention is required for defining the allowed values in enumerations to ensure they are a. extendable and b. do not become obsolete too quickly.
Field Definitions
Field names are case-insensitive, yet implementors SHOULD use the capitalized style used in this document for consistency.
Field values are case-insensitive. In case a field contains an enumeration, implementors MUST refer to the allowed values given by the specification.
Author
This REQUIRED field holds an OPTIONAL author name and a REQUIRED email address providing information about who is responsible for maintaining the contents of the file. The field MUST contain a valid email address which shall be used for inquiries about the correctness and additions to the data provided in the file.
Example:
Contact: Jane Doe <jane.doe@example.com>
Collects
This REQUIRED multi-value field indicates which potentially privacy relevant user specific data is being collected or used in session identification. These MUST also be specified if not persisted as-is, but also when stored in a hashed and/or combined form.
Values MUST be one of the following:
ip-address
The request IP address is being used.
geographic-location
Geographic location of users is determined and used.
ua-string
Information about the User Agent used by the user is being used.
fingerprint
Browser Fingerprinting is used.
device-type
The user's device type (e.g. mobile / tablet / desktop) is being determined and used.
url
The URL of a visit is collected and used.
referrer
The referrer of a visit is collected and used.
visit-duration
The duration of a visit, either on page- or on session-level is measured and used.
custom-events
Custom events like conversion goals are defined and used. This can be left out in case the analytics software in use offers such functionality, but implementors chose not to use the feature.
session-recording
Detailed behavior like mouse movement and scrolling is recorded and can possibly be played back when analyzing the analytics data.
Example:
Collects: url, device-type, referrer
Stores
This REQUIRED multi-value field indicates whether data is persisted on the client during the collection of analytics data and declares the browser features used for doing so. If no data is being persisted, the value none MUST be used.
Values MUST be one of the following:
first-party-cookies
First party cookies are in use. There is no differentiation between session or persistent cookies, just like HTTP and JavaScript cookies are considered equal.
third-party-cookies
Third party cookies are in use. There is no differentiation between session or persistent cookies, just like HTTP and JavaScript cookies are considered equal.
local-storage
Data is persisted on the client using non-cookie JavaScript APIs like localStorage, sessionStorage or IndexedDB
etag
The analytics software leverages browser caches to store identifiers.
none
No data is persisted on the client during the collection of usage data.
Example:
Stores: 1st-party-cookies, local-storage
Uses
This REQUIRED multi-value field indicates the technical implementation details for how analytics data is being collected.
Values MUST be one of the following:
javascript
A client-side script is used to collect data.
pixel
A resource - typically a pixel - downloaded via HTTP is being used to collect data through the request parameters.
server-side
Collection of usage data is happening on the server side at application layer.
logs
Usage data is being calculated from server log files.
other
Other techniques that are not described in this section are in use.
Example:
Uses: script
Allows
This REQUIRED multi-value field discloses information about whether user consent is being acquired before collecting analytics data, and if it is possible for users to opt out of the collection of usage data. Regulations about user consent do not apply to this field.
Values MUST be one of the following:
opt-in
No usage data is collected before users have given their consent.
opt-out
Users can opt out of collection of usage data using a dedicated feature tailored towards the user audience.
none
The software does not define a way for users to opt in or opt out of the collection of usage data.
Example:
Allows: opt-in, opt-out
Retains
This REQUIRED single-value field indicates the duration for which the analytics data is being stored before being delete. The value is a duration as defined in {{?RFC 3339}}. Implementors SHOULD add a comment providing a human readable value.
Example:
# Data is retained for twelve months
Retains: P12M
Session
This OPTIONAL, RECOMMENDED single-value field indicates the coverage in session tracking. It MUST contain a single value only.
The value MUST be one of the following:
anonymous
Each event that is collected is anonymous. There is now way to connect two pageviews or similar.
session
A user can be reidentified throughout a single browser session.
user
A user can be identified across multiple browser sessions.
Example:
Session: user
Visibility
This OPTIONAL, RECOMMENDED multi-value field indicates whether the website provides a way for users or the general public to access data.
Values MUST be one of the following:
user
Users can access the usage data that is associated with them in a non-aggregated way, isolating all data that is specific to their current means of reidentification.
public
Usage statistics for the site or service are available to the general public.
Example:
Visibility: public
Compliance
This OPTIONAL field indicates conformance with certain regulations and legislations.
Example values are:
- gdpr
- hiipa
- ccpa
Example:
Compliance: gdpr, ccpa
Vendors
This OPTIONAL field indicates which software is being used for collecting analytics.
Example values are:
- google-analytics
- plausible
- offen
- hotjar
- matomo
Example:
Vendors: offen, hotjar
Example of an analytics.txt file
# analytics.txt file for https://www.analyticstxt.org
Author: Frederik Ring <hioffen@posteo.de>
Collects: url, referrer, device-type
Stores: first-party-cookies, local-storage
# Data is encrypted end-to-end
Uses: javascript
# Users can also delete their usage data only without opting out
Allows: opt-in, opt-out
# Data is retained for 6 months
Retains: P6M
# Optional fields
Session: user
Visibility: user
Compliance: gdpr
Vendors: offen
Location of the analytics.txt file
By default, an analytics.txt file SHOULD be placed in the ".well-known" path as per {{!RFC8615}} of a domain name or IP address. In case implementors are unable to meet this requirement, two other options are available.
Implementors MAY signal the location of an analytics.txt file in the context of a HTML document using a link element of rel "analytics"
Example:
<link rel="analytics" href="https://example.com/resources/analytics.txt">
In addition to that implementors MAY send an HTTP header of X-Analytics-Txt with a response, sending the URI of the applicable file.
Example:
X-Analytics-Txt: https://example.com/resources/analytics.txt
In case multiple of these signals are being used, the precedence taken is:
- X-Analytics-Txt Header
- link element
- .well-known location
Scope of a file
An analytics.txt file MUST only apply to the domain or IP address in the URI used to retrieve it, not to any of its subdomains or parent domains. An analytics.txt file MAY also apply to products and services provided by the organization publishing the file.
Security Considerations
Incorrect or stale information
If information given in an "analytics.txt" file is incorrect or not kept up to date, this can result in usage of services under wrong assumptions in the realm of privacy, thus exposing users to possibly unwanted data collection and handling. Not having an "analytics.txt" file may be preferable to having stale information in this file. Implementors must use the "Author" field (see {{author-field}}) to allow inquiries about the correctness of the given information.
Spam
Implementors should be aware that disclosing mandatory author information as per {{author-field}} in such a file exposes them to possible Spam schemes or spurious requests.
Multi-user Environments
In multi-user / multi-tenant environments, it may possible for a single user to take over the location of the "/.well-known/security.txt" file. Organizations should ensure the ".well-known" location is properly protected. Implementors can use other locations as per {{location}}.
IANA Considerations
Well-Known URIs registry
The "Well-Known URIs" registry should be updated with the following additional values (using the template from {{!RFC8615}}):
URI suffix: analytics.txt
Specification document(s): this document
Status: permanent
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Acknowledgments
{:numbered="false"}
TODO acknowledge.