Change default analytics exclusion setting for logged-in users to prevent incomplete conversion data #11746
Description
Feature Description
The current default setting in Site Kit excludes all logged-in users from analytics tracking. This causes a critical problem for sites where customers log in - whether for e-commerce purchases (WooCommerce), accessing member content, or leaving comments. When customers are logged in, their conversion data and analytics are not tracked, resulting in incomplete data.
Current behavior:
- Default: Exclude all logged-in users from GA tracking
- This includes customers, subscribers, and any logged-in role
- Most users don't understand this setting or its impact
- The user data is being sent via the GTag for Enhanced Conversions; however, it's being ignored as desired
Problem:
- E-commerce sites where customers log in to checkout lose conversion data for those logged-in purchases
- WooCommerce sites configured to require login, or where customers choose to create accounts, lose tracking for those conversions
- Subscription/membership sites with logged-in content lose visitor analytics
- The default is too broad and penalizes common use cases
- Users may not realize their conversion tracking is incomplete
Proposed solution:
- Change default to only exclude users with "edit content" permissions and above (editors, authors, admins)
- This still excludes site owners/staff but tracks customers and subscribers
- Retroactively apply this change to existing users via migration
- Notify users of the change with banner and link to settings if they want to opt out
This change prioritizes accurate conversion and analytics data while still preventing site owner activity from skewing results.
This observation was found during ECEE bug bash. See related Asana ticket here.
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