evening Mary;
guess you’ll have to download a couple of browsers, activate the DNT option and look at the “network” information in those browser’s developer tools with and without wp dnt acttive?
hope this helps,
frank
Frank,
Thank yoiu. I had activated the DNT before, but not using any Developers Tools.
I tried using FireFox (DNT activated) and went to Developers Tools and then Network and it gave me a bunch of readouts. Can you tell me what I am suppose to look for, I don’t know what it means or how to read it. Or, is there a resource you can point me to?
Frank,
Am I on the right track here ….
In one browser I activated the DNT and in another I didn’t. I went the same website in both browsers and then opened the Network Information Developer’s Tools – in the one without the DNT on I saw well over 200 “gets” … versus in the one where the DNT looks to be honored I saw only 4 to six …. lines for images … I can assume here that the DNT is being honored?
On my own site I also saw a lot of gets …. I take it with the plugin I should be able to see zero network gets?
Am I on the right track here ….
afraid not; the difference you’re seeing there is not DNT kicking in, but caching. DNT being honoured is more difficult to pinpoint really, as you would have to find a site which does, indeed honour DNT. such a site would in that case typically have a few less requests.
but if you can give me your site’s URL I can have a look at what tracking is going on, which then subsequently could be blocked when wp donottrack is activated?
frank
you only have a limited amount of external calls; 3 to be exact, all to
http://wp.com (for your stats), there seem to be no other 3rd party trackers there. so unless you want visitors with DNT not to be counted in your stats, there currently is no immediate need for WP DoNotTrack.
frank
Frank,
Thank you. Could you tell that by the network Development tools?
I didn’t realize – that my stats would be affected by DNT visitors.
I am planning on adding more plugins: PayPal, maybe Google Analytics and SEO Yoast and others ….
Is there a resource that would help me understand this all a bit better, so that as my site grows, I understand the repercussions?
– Mary
Could you tell that by the network Development tools?
yes, but also confirmed by a testrun on http://www.webpagetest.org (as my browser has a number of addons to stop tracking & ads)
I didn’t realize – that my stats would be affected by DNT visitors.
stats aren’t necessarily impacted by DNT visitors. but you could configure wp donottrack not to allow users with DNT to be included in your stats.
I am planning on adding more plugins: PayPal, maybe Google Analytics and SEO Yoast and others ….
what you could do is with every plugin you activate do a new test (on webpagetest.org) to see which requests are added. or alternatively use e.g. ghostery in your browser and see how many (and which) requests it blocks after activating a new plugin. the difficult part, off course, is determining which requests are normal and acceptable and which one should be considered tracking.
Is there a resource that would help me understand this all a bit better, so that as my site grows, I understand the repercussions?
there must be, but I’m afraid I don’t have one in mind or in my bookmarks. quite a broad topic, with a lot of technical aspects to it I’m afraid.
frank
Many thanks Frank!
I really appreciate your time and effort in answering my questions and your DNT plugin!
I’ve found this topic to be an especially difficult one to get an understanding of.
Many thanks,
Mary
