986319 - Telemetry submission of clicks on Directory Tiles

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Privacy Graveyard :: Product Review, task)

Description

[Ed Lee :Mardak]

From bug 972930 comment 17:

The functionality that we want to get metrics on is a new set of tiles data shown in the newtab page. Firefox already probes which position tiles are clicked, e.g., does the user only click tile position #1 and #2. The new probe is similar except recording which index of the new set of tiles are clicked. See bug 972930 comment 14 for some examples.

We want to be able to answer how many times do users click on directory tile in index #1 (which is different from position #1 because directory tiles are shifted down in position as the user browses).

The privacy concern is that we don't want to collect browsing history -- we just want interaction click counts with the interface presented that happen to load a page. We don't care if the user successfully navigates/browses to the associated page -- just the fact that a tile at some index was clicked.

The tricky aspect is that we know what page is associated with which index. I think this is similar to a theoretical probe that we could add for users who launch outdated versions of Firefox where the probe would help report how many users are launching which outdated versions, but we would happen to also know that Firefox most likely tried to load a tab with "upgrade Firefox to the latest version" page which is now technically part of the browsing history.

Comment 1

[Benjamin Smedberg]

I don't think we should do this. The index clearly conveys which sponsored tab the user is visiting, and none of the product requirements indicated that we need to collect this information.

Comment 2

[Ed Lee :Mardak]

(In reply to Benjamin Smedberg  [:bsmedberg] from comment #1)
> The index clearly conveys which sponsored tab the user is visiting
The original patch in bug 972930 only included the tile position clicked instead of the directory index. This is just like the existing Telemetry probe that reports which positions newtab tile has been clicked. Would this be okay add as a Telemetry probe?

Or something else suggested in bug 972930 comment 10 was to count the number of times each type of tile was clicked and not any position information.

> none of the product requirements indicated that we need to collect this information.
clarkbw's bug 972930 comment 12: "A distribution of Directory Tiles in general would be most useful, we want to know that the organic tiles etc have real user value and to be able to match that against any sponsors.  If we can't get the position data having all the types would be of more value."

I see that he does say "most useful" re: counts on clicks per type and "more value" re: counts on clicks per index. But there is no "requirement" or "need."

clarkbw, if we're going for only what is required as opposed to nice to have, are there any requirements?

Comment 3

[Benjamin Smedberg]

> The original patch in bug 972930 only included the tile position clicked
> instead of the directory index. This is just like the existing Telemetry
> probe that reports which positions newtab tile has been clicked. Would this
> be okay add as a Telemetry probe?

Yes.

> Or something else suggested in bug 972930 comment 10 was to count the number
> of times each type of tile was clicked and not any position information.

Yes, this would also be fine.

Comment 4

[Bryan Clark (DevTools PM) [:clarkbw]]

(In reply to Ed Lee :Mardak from comment #2)
> clarkbw, if we're going for only what is required as opposed to nice to
> have, are there any requirements?

Required is knowing that a Directory Tiles is clicked as opposed to a User History Tile.  If we can't get the other information we can make do without it.

Comment 5

[Ed Lee :Mardak]

(In reply to Benjamin Smedberg  [:bsmedberg] from comment #3)
> > count the number of times each type of tile was clicked
> Yes, this would also be fine.
I just realized if we're shipping with only 1 sponsored tile, then it would be clear which sponsored tile was clicked (although we'll probably have 2+ of each of organic and affiliate). Do we need to have 2 sponsored tiles? At position 9 and 10 (requires the user to remove a tile)?

Comment 6

[Benjamin Smedberg]

I am worried about that. My initial reaction is that we need more than one sponsored tile in order to record any sponsored-tile-specific clicks in telemetry.

Comment 7

[Ed Lee :Mardak]

We get data through the tiles ping reporting.