A4 Refereed article in a conference publication
Third-party Services as a Privacy Threat on University Websites
Authors: Heino Timi, Rauti Sampsa, Carlsson Robin, Leppänen Ville
Editors: Tzvetomir Vassilev, Roumen Trifonov
Conference name: International Conference on Computer Systems and Technologies
Publishing place: New York, NY
Publication year: 2023
Book title : CompSysTech '23: Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Computer Systems and Technologies
Series title: ACM International Conference Proceeding Series
First page : 134
Last page: 138
ISBN: 979-8-4007-0047-7
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3606305.3606335
Web address : https://doi.org/10.1145/3606305.3606335
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/182351113
As the shift towards digitalization accelerates, and people increasingly rely on online services for everyday tasks, the significance of online privacy concerns keeps rising. This is also true for universities, as they continue transitioning their services and information online. In the current study, we present a technical analysis of the prevalence of third-party analytics on university websites in the EU area. We analyzed the websites of 95 universities from 19 different EU countries. The third-party analytics services employed by the studied websites were identified. The study reveals that the websites of most universities contain concerningly high numbers of analytics. These findings highlight the need to carefully choose and justify the used analytics services, and to assess the personal data websites deliver to third parties. Addressing online privacy concerns is particularly crucial for universities, as they can be considered as institutions dedicated to serving the common good.
Downloadable publication This is an electronic reprint of the original article. |