JS Tracking Script from ScorecardResearch.com

[Rob Bell]

Hi,

A member of our community spotted that each ning page is loading a script from a host named scorecardresearch.com. It looks like they specialise in data collection for market research purposes. Does anybody know any more about what they're collecting and why?

[Jason Rosenthal]

Hi Rob,

The JavaScript was introduced to Ning pages is a standard traffic tracking beacon which sends anonymized data including the page URL, the referring page, and the page title. No personally identifiable information is being sent by the script. We're experimenting with this right now as a way to help some of the external traffic measurement services, like Comscore, more accurately account for Ning traffic.

Thanks,

Jason

[Black]

I've noticed that in the past few days, there are a lot more javascript requirements on the site. I usually run NoScript, which allows me to choose which sites are permitted to run javascript.

Anyhow, the past few days, something has changed, and now I cannot post a reply to a blog or a forum post, etc, without allowing Scorecardresearch.com's javascript to run.

Looking them up, they are a marketing research firm which tracks the web browsing habits of people, and sets cookies on your browser to track where you go.

Any particular reason that the 'Add comment' buttons won't work without their javascript?

Jason Rosenthal said:

Hi Rob,

The JavaScript was introduced to Ning pages is a standard traffic tracking beacon which sends anonymized data including the page URL, the referring page, and the page title. No personally identifiable information is being sent by the script. We're experimenting with this right now as a way to help some of the external traffic measurement services, like Comscore, more accurately account for Ning traffic.

Thanks,

Jason