Defrag 2014
Transcript of Defrag 2014
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How to collect data really really good
And be a good human being too
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Who am I?• Work at Keen IO - sorry if the
wifi sucks :( and you're welcome if it rocks.
• 10+ years of web application programming (PHP anyone?).
• Have built and worked with many data collection tools across a variety of industries.
• Proud supporter of Movember.
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Let's add analytics!• We just made the new uber of airbnb's for reptiles,
let's track all the user data: location, friends with reptiles, eating habits, and favorite other apps.
• Store the data now, figure out what to do with it later. Space is cheap, and we have access to a wealth of user information from their phone.
• We should track information not relevant to the product in case we pivot to the airbnb of ubers for mosquitos.
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Why We Should Track All the Things
• Tracking user behavior gives us insights into product usage.
• We can build recommendations based on how others use the system.
• Find useful patterns of engagement, or use patterns to help determine which features are used most.
• Provide product personalization.
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What Should We Think Strongly About When Tracking?
• Location data - People are very sensitive about others tracking their locations over time.
• Financial data - Tracking what a user buys over time could be somewhat invasive.
• Habitual data - Sites you visit, how long you stay on those sites.
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Examples of “Creepy” Data
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iOS and Location Data
• My phone never asked me to track my location and “learn” my commute.
• As a developer, I know how easy this is to do, but it still feels like an invasion of my privacy to do it without asking.
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Ad Cookie Tracking aka Retargeting
• I searched for shaving products a while back, and looked at Harry’s web site, but this came from The New York Times’ web page.
• This site has nothing to do with different shaving needs, so why does it know what I was looking for? Creepy.
• This is even worse for more highly targeted markets like weight loss and dieting.
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Avoid Being a Creeper• As a general rule of thumb, just don’t track things
that have nothing to do with your product.
• Don’t use location information for your product? Don’t track it!
• Let your users know what you’re tracking and why.
• Many won’t read about it, but if the information is there, those who care will read it.
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Track Smartly• When dealing with geo location data, avoid
tracking with anything that can lead back to a user.
• Track based on a session id, not a user email address or name - add one layer of abstraction.
• Make sure your sessions have a fixed length (30-45 minutes is a good one).
• Blur the location data. Often blurring to within +/- 100 feet can help, but its generally not enough.
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Make Sure Users Know What Benefits They Get
• If you are tracking something, make sure your users knows what benefit your product provides.
• Generally speaking, if your product doesn’t have to do with location, don’t track location to serve better ads.
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If You Can, Track Aggregates
• If it makes sense, aggregate your data into cohorts or groups that make sense.
• Other people in the same geo-box.
• Others from the same ISP.
• It’s inherently less “creepy” to be part of a sum rather than a single point of data.
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What Happens When You Don’t Track Smartly?
• Remember the whole position information log debacle from Apple?
• Location tracking files are stored on your phone unencrypted.
• Ended with a lot of bad press and some very vocal disgruntled customers.
• Facebook applications that would store your friend lists and all of their information.
• Why are my friends getting notifications from me that I never authorized?
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Don’t Pull an Uber• Uber, as a product should be tracking location of
customers, but what happens when that information is accessible to people inside the company?
• Just because you are tracking something, does that mean you should easily be able to search through it? Is there a different way to track that information that still makes sense?
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Looking Forward• As product designers and
implementors, we should track as many things as we can about our products.
• We have a moral obligation to consider the consequences and uses of what we track.
• Lets make All The Things better!
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Thanks!
@alexk_k