1849371 - Add cookie banner as a possible serp.ad_impression component and the user choice as one of the serp.engagement targets

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: Search, task, P2)

Description

[James Teow [:jteow]]

We have received a request to detect when cookie modal dialog appear on SERPs.

Modals may discourage users from continuing their search.

Part of this effort will require considering how to detect if a banner was visible or not and if that heuristic remains consistent across all (most?) locales.

Comment 1

[Romain Testard [:RT]]

Attachment: Request for data collection review form

Hi, thanks for helping with the review

Comment 2

[Romain Testard [:RT]]

For context there are 2 separate telemetry requests around cookie banners on google domain:

• this one that will help understand if a serp event happened after a banner display during the session. I imagin that using an extra_key on https://dictionary.telemetry.mozilla.org/apps/firefox_desktop/metrics/serp_impression could work to describe if a banner was displayed in the session and what the user choice was. This event will come particularly useful inside PBM where cookies are cleared after every session and banners are displayed frequently
• https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1874741 collects a state for what the GDPR banner user choice was on google search in normal windows.

Comment 3

[Chris H-C :chutten]

Comment on attachment 9372984 [details]
Request for data collection review form

PRELIMINARY NOTES:

Please remember to fill in the data collection category in your answer to Q5 in future review requests.

DATA COLLECTION REVIEW RESPONSE:

Is there or will there be documentation that describes the schema for the ultimate data set available publicly, complete and accurate?

Yes.

Is there a control mechanism that allows the user to turn the data collection on and off?

Yes. This collection can be controlled through Firefox's Preferences.

If the request is for permanent data collection, is there someone who will monitor the data over time?

Yes, Romain Testard is responsible.

Using the category system of data types on the Mozilla wiki, what collection type of data do the requested measurements fall under?

Category 2, Interaction.

Is the data collection request for default-on or default-off?

Default on for all channels.

Does the instrumentation include the addition of any new identifiers?

No.

Is the data collection covered by the existing Firefox privacy notice?

Yes.

Does the data collection use a third-party collection tool?

No.

---

Result: datareview+

Comment 4

[James Teow [:jteow]]

Romain, would it be acceptable if we added cookie_banner to the list of possible ad_impression components instead of attaching it to the Impression? I asked Data Science and they're fine adding another non-monetized component to the list (sidenote: We're likely to rename the event to something more generic since not everything has to do with an ad).

https://dictionary.telemetry.mozilla.org/apps/firefox_desktop/metrics/serp_ad_impression

These are connected back to the SERP impression via impression_id.

The reason why I'm suggesting this is in recording an impression, we do a quick scan of the page before its fully loaded to look for elements that we know aren't going to need Javascript to show up. For the cookie banner, it's possible for it not to be visible at this step. In practice, I found Google and Bing work fine but Ecosia shows it slightly after we run this first scan and so I am not able to accurately record its existence without adding a delay.

In contrast, when we scan for components, we wait till the page is fully loaded and 1 second elapses. In this scenario, we should have confidence is capturing Ecosia's cookie banner and being a bit future proof should something change with other providers.

Comment 5

[Romain Testard [:RT]]

Thanks, it sounds like it would work since the following is possible:

• Count over a period of time the banner displays and break it down per user choice
• For a single user count banner displays
• Correlate user choice with ad display and ad click rates

Do I interpret it right that we would add cookie_banner to the list and that its value will reflect the user choice?

Comment 6

[James Teow [:jteow]]

If we'd like to capture user choice, it would need to be reflected in a serp.engagement event. The ad_impression event only captures the number of instances of an element on a page.

Changing the title of the bug to ad_impression as we'll record the telemetry there, and it can be re-connected to the SERP impression via the impression_id.

Comment 7

[Karandeep Lubana [:klubana]]

Attachment: Bug 1849371 - Add cookie banner as a possible serp.ad_impression component and the user choice as one of the serp.engagement targets. r=jteow

Depends on D200720

Comment 8

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/b7cc85b852b9
Add cookie banner as a possible serp.ad_impression component and the user choice as one of the serp.engagement targets. r=jteow

Comment 9

[pstanciu]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/b7cc85b852b9

Comment 10

[[e-mail]]

Does this telemetry also work on android? Do we need new telemetry for Fenix?

As I understand, this bug helps us correlate user banner choice to the ad link frequency. My confusion is if this also applies to desktop.

Comment 11

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

(In reply to [e-mail] from comment #10)

Does this telemetry also work on android? Do we need new telemetry for Fenix?

This is a part of SERP event telemetry that has not been implemented on mobile. It is possible that SERP event telemetry will be implemented on mobile later, but we're still developing it on desktop, and I don't know if there are plans for it currently.