P3P does it matter any more?

[jess1]

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Quick question why do so many sites not have a P3P policy? Tesco, Debenhams, Amazon to name but three.
Its something that has cropped up and when I went looking into the number of merchants who have an affiliate program without a website P3P policy, I was thrown, it's a lot.

Why are there so many and do affiliates still promote merchants where by they have no P3P policy? Whats changed?

I asked Wouter and he showed me what happens when a merchant does not have a P3P policy. He set his putter privacy settings to high and went off to a merchat site. We could not add a product to the basket.

I did the same on my putter and 9 out of 10 merchants site who dont have P3P but who have an affiliate program, I could not add a product to the basket, stopped me dead in my tracks. The 10th one, Im not sure what happened but I was able to proceed (even though the P3P policy was absent) Now, I asked Graeme of POR and he gave me a great answer, very factual, so Im loaded with knowledge.

Before I continue, lets get some views from all sides of the fence.

P3P... why should merchants have one? Why Should Merchants not have one, why do they not have one?

Affiliates, does it make a difference to you when promoting a merchant re P3P policy? If yes...why? If no...why?

Networks, do you advise merchant re P3P, is it a big issue for you or not a huge thing to be worried about?

Why do some many merchants not have one, whats the deal hear?

Jess :0)

[lethal0r]

I bet most affiliates don't know about P3P & neither does your average shopper, maybe thats why some merchants don't have them. It's just not that important yet.

[purple]

what is a p3p policy? I will hide in corner in shame now!

[graeme]

P3P is a way for site owners to "tell" the browser what you do with cookies on your website, its related to privacy. I believe only Internet Explorer 6/7 uses P3P. Put simply if your Internet Explorer with cookie settings is set to High, then your browser will not accept cookies from that website if they do not have a P3P policy.

A few years ago there was a thread like this about P3P and it was confirmed all Affiliate Networks have P3P polices, not sure of the newer Affiliate Networks. So as long as the Merchant shows the Affiliate Network tracking code, your still going to get paid even if the Merchant doesn't have a P3P policy.

However, most Merchants use cookies themselves to store the users shopping basket, if that user is using Internet Explorer with cookie settings to High it means that cookie won't be set, meaning that user would be able to fill here basket and make a transaction, so it would mean lost sales to the Merchant.

There are two parts to P3P, first a human readable privacy statement which is an XML document saying what you do with cookies for us humans to read. If your using Internet Explorer, click View in your menu and then Privacy Report. It shows all the URL called to load this page and if they used a cookie, and if that was Accepted or Rejected. Click any entry and click Summary. If this site had a P3P policy it would show. It doesn't.

Visit a website which does have one and try again, shameless plug we do Affiliate Marketing - Paid On Results - UK Affiliate Network, again go View, Privacy Report, click the top line and then click Summary.

The second part to P3P is the Compact Policy, basically this is for the browser to read, it is a string of codes which explains what you do with cookies. This is what the Internet Explorer uses if you have cookie settings to High. You need to view the HTTP headers of a request to see if a website has a P3P Compact Policy, this is what it looks like

P3P: policyref="http://www.paidonresults.com/w3c/p3p.xml",CP="CAO DSP COR LAW DEVa TAIa OUR BUS UNI ADMa CURa PHY ONL PUR COM NAV DEM STA"

Those 3 letter codes mean something to Internet Explorer, the meaning of each can be found at P3P Compact Policy. Because we have this in all our HTTP headers, Internet Explorer will set our cookie even if the user has the cookie settings to High.

It is free and costs nothing to add a P3P policy, you just need to be able to configure your webserver (Apache, etc) to issue the P3P header with all requests.

Remember, P3P is only needed if you set or use cookies on your website, and if you are concerned there are users using your website with Internet Explorer cookie settings to High.

[jess1]

Lol Graeme.. looks like u beat me too it

P3P: The Platform for Privacy Preferences

From the customers end (without coming via an affiliate)
Some customers may not be able to add products to their basket via some merchant if the customers privacy is set to high (block all cookies from websites that do not have a compact privacy policy (P3P)

Try it out yourself : Im working with IE, not tried it in any other browser.

Go find a merchants site without a P3P (I don’t want to hone in on any particular merchant, it would not be right) To find out if the merchant has a P3P policy.
go to a merchants site (on the iEx tool bar, click on page then click on “web privacy”
With your mouse click once on the domain name and then go to summery, here you will either get the companies P3P policy or it will say look on the website. Most companies have a written privacy policy for humans to read, which is not the same as the P3P policy, perhaps this is where the confusion comes in?
Now you have found a merchant follow the next steps.

Set your internet explorer “internet options” (on your computer) chose privacy, set the privacy to high, click apply and go chose a product from the merchants site and try to adding something to the basket. You wont be able to.

Implications for affiliates is in some cases the affiliate cookie can be wiped off, thus the affiliate loses commission. I don’t know on what scale this is.

Problem is, I have no clue if this is a big problem or not, how many customers have their privacy settings on high, but... I did a test with medium settings and 4 out of 10 merchants, I could not progress to check out. With merchant who do have a P3P (Argos.co.uk, well done!) all was fine and dandy

In my mind, anything that prevents a customer from making a sale is a bad thing, I don’t understand why so many merchants don’t have a P3P policy, its free it costs nothing. Once the P3P policy has been implemented by the merchant, the customer can then proceed to buy something. So what’s the deal here? I failing to understand, I have to be missing something????

If affiliates are not being rewarded their due commission because of P3P missing this cant be good, the networks surely are losing out, but even the merchants without an affiliate program what % of their customers can not add something to their basket?
But I have no clue as to what the scale is, like I said it could be small or it could be big, I just don’t know. Which is why Im asking

[Keith]

I did the same on my putter and 9 out of 10 merchants site who dont have P3P but who have an affiliate program, I could not add a product to the basket

This is extremely worrying, another reason for shopping carts being abandoned as if there weren't enough of those anyway

[Bud]

Jess

This is really worrying.

I'm wondering how many merchants have actually seen this thread?

Having done a quick check around some, many of which are big names, it's appalling the amount that don't have a P3P policy!

I can only summize, "If only they knew!"

Shouldn't this be pointed out by each account manager to their merchants? It is possible that some (most it would seem) merchants are still not aware of these problems and I'm sure they'd appreciate the advice, and the extra sales!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but would a user have the settings to high to help with security? If so, that must be an awful lot of potential buyers being lost ...

[nim-b]

I've read this- so merchant's are listening.

Fortunately though we have a P3P policy, which is clearly laid out in our Privacy Policy.

I'm surprised other merchant's don't have this- its hardly difficult to setup.

Thanks
Naomi

[philhancox]

I checked with the commerce site that I work for and the basket empties itself when I applied the example above: use Internet Explorer, set all security levels to high etc.

This is indeed worrying, but are there any ballpark figures or any way of knowing how many consumers actually use IE with security settings that high? If so, isn't their internet experience very badly affected? Surely we're talking about people who don't often buy online, particularly if so many merchants do not have a P3P policy? Also, why is it only Internet Explorer that does this, or are there other browsers which require a P3P policy? Sorry for all the questions but finally, is P3P a new thing?