: Recording custom variables to identify individual users with Google Analytics I have been asked by our marketing department to add Google Analytics custom variable tracking to my company's website.

@Margaret670

While sending Google information that is personally identifiable is simply not permitted, you can instead send an identifier which is known only to you.

You should create what I’m going to term a “Google Analytics identifier” (GAID) which is mapped to the username/user ID and is only used to send tracking data to Google Analytics. You’ll likely need to store this against the user object/user table in your backend system.

I've written up some real world examples of what is and isn't allowed in this blogpost:

Identifying your users in Google Analytics while complying with section 7 of the terms of service

You can then send something like this to Google Analytics:


var gaid = 'some secret identifier';
_gaq.push(['_setCustomVar', 1, 'gaid', gaid, 1 ]);


This means set a custom variable (1st parameter is '_setCustomVar' )...


in slot 1 (2nd parameter)
named 'gaid' (3rd parameter)
with value 'some secret identifier' (4th parameter)
for the entire visit (5th parameter)


Once this is done, you'll need to lookup each user against the gaid in your backend system.

Alternatively, you could build your own integration against the Google Analytics API to combine the data from Google Analytics with the data in your backend system.

If you change the content of a visit based custom variable after it is initially set, but in the name visit, the value will be overwritten.

Update:

On your website

Google released Universal Analytics out of beta at the start of April 2014. Now it's fairly easy to setup this kind of thing with the User ID feature

e.g.

<script>
// Standard Google Universal Analytics code
(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
})(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');

ga('create', 'UA-XXXXXX-Y', {'userId': gaid});
ga('set', 'dimension1', gaid); // Set a `Custom User ID` dimension too if the user id hasn't been rolled out to you yet.
ga('send', 'pageview');

</script>


The "User ID" feature is currently being rolled out, so in the meantime, we're using a Custom Dimension to store our own "Custom User ID".

In Google Analytics


Browse to Google Analytics Administration
Select an Account and then a Property within that account
Expand Custom Definitions below a selected Property
Select Custom Dimensions
Click on the Custom Dimension Name button
In the Add Custom Dimension screen

Type Custom User ID in the Name field
Select Visit from the Scope dropdown menu
Check the Active checkbox
Click the Create button



Congratulations, you now have a Custom Dimension named Custom User ID which is available for use within the Google Analytics interface. Next, you'll need to populate this custom dimension with some data.

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@Megan663

You will not (and will not allow any third party to) use the Service
to track, collect or upload any data that personally identifies an
individual (such as a name, email address or billing information), or
other data which can be reasonably linked to such information by
Google ... You must post a Privacy Policy and that Privacy Policy must provide notice of Your use of cookies that are used to collect traffic data, and You must not
circumvent any privacy features (e.g., an opt-out) that are part of
the Service.

www.google.com/analytics/tos.html
So you can:


Check for a present cookie SSI-GA-track, for example.
No cookie, you generate one via JavaScript (due to SSI) by appending date, maybe hash of any unique data of browser / anything (to generate a var that will become a cookie). To adhere to TOS, hashing should be ONE_WAY, e.g. md5, sha1, NOT BASE64.
Have cookie -> set var id.
Track!

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@Samaraweera270

Tracking individual sessions is against google analytics TOS.
I have tried it, and after they catch up to you, they simply lock out the data.

A better choice would be to use one of the GA alternatives.
CrazyEgg. Gaug.es. and others.

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@Cofer257

Not sure what language you're using, but you could build a session for a user and then "roll your own" tracking if you HAVE to get into that. Writing to a db each page a user goes to can create overhead when writing to a file or DB though.

To ID the user you'd have to create some kind of UUID for their session (could do a random number + server microtom + IP or something similar)

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