A proposed standard
which allows websites and services to disclose information
about their usage of analytics software and user tracking.

We offer an Implementation Wizard with vendor presets.

Try it now~

Privacy has become an important feature for users of websites and services.

We aim at providing a well-defined way for websites and services to signal their usage of analytics and tracking software to users and make it discoverable for their tooling.

analytics.txt will be designed to be an elaborate standard that describes the usage of analytics and tracking in a non-biased way that is understandable both for a non-technical audience, but is also useful for consumption by tools and software.

First version submitted~

We have submitted a first version of the specification as an Internet-Draft. We welcome any kind of feedback to initiate a discussion on our proposal.

View Internet-Draft

Why should I use analytics.txt on my website?

  • Regulations around the handling of user data on websites are evolving quickly and mandate certain practices. An analytics.txt file can give auditors instant insights on what is in use and how this maps to the applicable regulations.

  • Users value websites that are transparent about the privacy implications their usage brings. analytics.txt can disclose such information to your users without hiding behind the walls of legalese text that have become an industry practice.

  • Tools like crawlers or Browser extensions can read and parse the data in analytics.txt and use it to signal privacy metrics to users and other third parties.

How does analytics.txt look like for this website? 

# analytics.txt file for www.analyticstxt.org
Author: Frederik Ring <hioffen@posteo.de>

Collects: url, referrer, device-type
Stores: first-party-cookies, local-storage
# Usage data is encrypted end-to-end
Uses: javascript
# Users can also delete their usage data only without opting out
Allows: opt-in, opt-out
# Data is retained for 6 months
Retains: 186 days

# Optional fields
Honors: none
Tracks: sessions, users
Varies: none
Shares: per-user
Implements: gdpr
Deploys: offen

Where should I put an analytics.txt file?

The preferred default location for your analytics.txt file is the /.well-known/ path of your web server. If this is not ideal or possible for you, there are two alternatives:

  • Use a <link rel="analytics.txt" href="/path/to/analytics.txt"> in the head of your document.

  • Send a X-Analytics-Txt: https://www.example.com/path/to/analytics.txt HTTP header with your documents.

I would like to use analytics.txt but don't really know what to put in there?

We want to make the specification as accessible as possible for everyone. That is why we offer an Implementation Wizard with vendor presets included in it.

How do I know the information in an analytics.txt file is correct?

analytics.txt is designed in a way that there are no right or wrong answers, so we start by trusting others to populate it correctly. If you are unsure about the correctness of such a file, you can do two things:

  • Contact the email address given in the mandatory Author field of the analytics.txt file, asking for clarification.

  • Use the Audit Tool we will be providing to check for basic conformance.

Let’s keep in touch~

Do you have feedback on analytics.txt? Do you have an idea for an application that could consume the provided data? Are you as enthusiastic about fair data transfer as we are?

Reach out to us and feel invited to take this idea forward together.

Send an e-mail