For an event professional, building a base of fans that trust you to provide a great experience at every event is crucial to being successful. One easy way to upset your regular attendees and lose their confidence is to violate their privacy. With the advent of internet technology that helps plan events and make their execution more efficient, many privacy concerns have arisen.

Topping the list of privacy concerns associated with doing business on the internet is payment information and personal information. Payment information is sensitive for obvious reasons: an unscrupulous person with access to credit card or banking information is quite dangerous. But personal information (name, address, mother’s maiden name, etc.) can be equally as dangerous with identity theft being one of the top concerns. It is the fear of losing control of this information which has led many people to oppose various technologies that make life easier on the web, but that might not necessarily be good for personal security. But what about tracking programs that use cookies? There has been much discussion regarding what information website cookies reveal to the website owner about users. While most web users are not particularly concerned with the practice of using cookies to collect information, there is a group of users who are very suspicious of websites that use cookies.

However, improvements in event registration software are bringing analytics to the event professional and it is important to understand how your registrants’ privacy is impacted by the implementation of web analytics on your registration form. First, it is very important to note that the point of web analytics is to study the behavior of web users in aggregate. This means that you won’t necessarily be singling out registrants to gather information. Sometimes the intent of analytics isn’t enough to deter critics, and so you should also be aware of what information is collected by your system.

To give you a few examples, Google Analytics protects users’ privacy by not logging individual IP addresses. RegOnline’s Analytics Reports do not allow the event planner to view any personal information about users unless they complete a registration. To further insulate yourself against privacy complaints you should carefully evaluate the registration software you plan on using. Some things to look for include HackerSafe security checks, Payment Card International certification and a verified privacy policy. By taking a little time up front to understand how analytics and cookies work you will be able to patiently explain to registrants that their data is being handled responsibly.