The Turing Way Book Data Usage

The Turing Way Book Data Usage#

We want to understand and optimise the use, geographical reach, and findability of The Turing Way book. It is possible through information such as how many people currently use the book, which chapters are they interested in, from which countries are they able to access our resources or where we are not currently findable or accessible. Therefore, we are collecting some data on our website activities, which we describe in this document.

For example, we are keen to understand data on website traffic as it helps with assessing and reporting impact through different channels. Data on search terms people use to find the website can help us understand readers’ needs and preferences. With this knowledge, we can better tailor our content to be useful.

See our ongoing discussions on GitHub around which insights could help improve the content quality.

For the above reasons, we are currently using Google Analytics to track traffic on our website and Cauldron to track activity on our GitHub repository.

User Awareness Statement - Google Analytics#

Google Analytics is problematic. We are working on using an open-source, GDPR-compliant analytics tool like Matomo or other ethical analytics tools instead.

For now, we have configured Google Analytics to be as GDPR-compliant as possible:

  • Our data retention settings are set to the minimum duration possible (2 months).

  • All advertising features are disabled.

  • We do not send user IDs to Google.

  • We do not share any collected data with Google beyond what is required of us to “maintain and protect the Google Analytics service.”

  • Note that, in the latest Google Analytics version, IP addresses are now anonymized per default.

By implementing these measures, we hope to somewhat mitigate the adverse effects of Google Analytics while we transition to a better tool. If you would like to get involved in this discussion, please head over to the GitHub issue linked to this document.

For other related questions, please reach out to The TuringWay team by emailing turingway@turing.ac.uk.

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