MCCC’s website serves as a gateway for students, faculty, and visitors to learn about academic programs, campus life, and to use various resources. It provides resources for students to access their email, student portal, and advising information. However, beneath the surface of the website is a complex web of trackers and cookies that quietly collect data on visitors.
We are all familiar with the popups we get on a new site asking if we accept all cookies, but even though people usually click “yes” they may not know what they are agreeing to.
Cookies are small pieces of data stored on a browser by websites someone visits. The cookies and trackers that MCCC deploys on its websites can gather different data such as browsing behavior, device information, location data, personal information, and cross-site tracking.
MCCC Professor of Television, Digital Film, & New Media, Dr. Steve Voorhees stated that cookies have 2 main purposes: website functionality and advertising. He said, “It’s a data set and a text file essentially that’s stored on the computer.”
He adds, “The cookie business is typically there’s a data supplier. The data supplier is the tracker creator…They collect data from numerous sites. They then sell that data to a data broker.”
Timothy Fitzpatrick, Web Developer and Designer for MCCC, says of the college’s site, “We have essential cookies that are basically used for analytics.”
Third-party trackers, like those commonly seen on MCCC, are placed by websites without the consent of the visitor to share information. Most third-party trackers are marketing-driven, such as the Google Analytics tracker or the Yahoo Analytics tracker.
When asked about the use of third-party trackers on the MCCC website, Erica Oliver, Vice President of Marketing, stated, “We work with cookies on the website for digital advertising.” She added, “The college contracts Imbue Creative to handle digital marketing for the college.”
Imbue Creative, an agency located in Lambertville, New Jersey, helps businesses and organizations with marketing and branding solutions with services like graphic design, website development, and digital marketing.
The VOICE Staff conducted a test to determine which trackers were being used on the MCCC website. After going to the MCCC website and waiting 20 seconds, the Safari browser had blocked 35 different trackers from being loaded. By contrast, that same test on the William Paterson, Rutgers New Brunswick, Middlesex College, and TCNJ websites shows they had 15, 14, 9, and 7 trackers respectively.
The VOICE staff confirmed the results on two additional computers.
When asked about the results of the test, Inder Singh, Vice President of Information Technology Services, stated, “I can’t answer since [the department of Information Technology Services] don’t manage [website tracking]. The marketing team manages it.”
Evelyn Sandoya, a second-year Liberal Arts major, said, “I feel like you kind of have to at least have some sort of trust in the institution that you’re attending, right?…Like why do you need 35 trackers on me when I go visit your website?”
Upon looking at the list of trackers she said, “Yeah, I have no idea what those are and Facebook makes sense, but like what the hell is bluekai.com?”
While some websites have a cookie consent pop-up, the MCCC website does not, because that kind of pop-up is only required by the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The footer of the MCCC website has a Privacy Statement located within the “Student Consumer Information” section. The “Third-Party Tracking Technology” section of the Privacy Statement clarifies Mercer’s policies and use of analytics.
Fitzpatrick stated, “Our privacy statement and our non discriminatory statement have both been, I think reviewed and updated within the past six months to a year at most…That’s always on our radar and we’re keeping on top of that.”
However, according to the MCCC website, the privacy statement was last updated in June 2021.
Sandoya stated, “I did not know that we [MCCC] had a privacy statement in the first place.”
When asked if Imbue Creative is the source of non-Google third-party trackers, Fitzpatrick stated “Correct.”
However, Erin Klebaur, owner of Imbue Creative says, “We only placed like one or two to track our stuff and what’s supposed to happen is when a campaign is done or a vendor is gone or whatever it is, they’re supposed to come off, so that’s task management.”
As to why MCCC would have 35 trackers listed on their site, Klebaur says, “I think it’s just an old site and needs some clean up which [the marketing] team is working on so, soon to come, I guess.”
The Federal Trade Commission recommends adjusting your web browser privacy settings and enabling an ad-blocker for personal safety.
In terms of what users can do to protect their data, Dr. Voorhees says, “I think media literacy is just the biggest part.”
The full list of trackers found on mccc.edu, as of April 23, 2024, include:
- 1rx.io
- 3lift.com
- adnxs.com
- adsrvr.org
- agkn.com
- bfmio.com
- bluekai.com
- crwdcntrl.net
- demdex.net
- doubleclick.net
- exelator.com
- facebook.com
- facebook.net
- google-analytics.com
- google.com
- googleadservices.com
- googletagmanager.com
- intentiq.com
- krxd.net
- lijit.com
- openx.net
- pippio.com
- pro-market.net
- pubmatic.com
- rlcdn.com
- rubiconproject.com
- simpli.fi
- smaato.net
- stickyadstv.com
- tapad.com
- tealiumiq.com
- tiqcdn.com
- tremorhub.com
- yahoo.com
- youtube.com
