Insights is designed to be useful to you and respectful to your visitors.
What is recorded for every search:
- The words that were typed
- How many results came back
- Whether a result was clicked
- The date and time
If the person searching is signed in to your site, the search is also tagged with their WordPress account. That is what lets a PRO member report show what a member searched for. A visitor who is not signed in is recorded as a phrase only.
What is never recorded:
- IP addresses
- Names, emails or contact details in the search log
- Cookies used to follow people around
- Anything that identifies a visitor who is not signed in
For visitors who are not signed in, the search log is a record of phrases, not of people.
Member Activity (PRO):
- It records which pages each signed in member opens, and nothing at all for visitors who are not signed in
- It only tracks content you made searchable, and not items you excluded
- Administrators are left out, so people running the site do not count as readers
- You can switch it off with one tick box under Recording on the Member Activity screen
Your controls:
- Turn recording off entirely in Settings, with Record searches for the Insights tab
- Clear every recorded search at any time with Clear Search Log on the Insights screen
- Your full history is kept until you clear it, so trends improve over time
If you publish a privacy policy, you can state that your site records the words visitors search for to improve site content, that searches by signed in members are linked to their account, and that no IP addresses are stored by the search tool.