ONP-3300

Open News Protocol (ONP): Analytics

Abstract

This document defines the Analytics Extension: org.onp.analytics. It is deliberately narrower than its name might suggest: it declares how a publisher tracks engagement with a News Object — tracking method, third-party involvement, consent requirements, retention — never the live metrics themselves (view counts, engagement figures). Actual metrics change continuously and would require constant re-signing to embed in an immutable Object, which does not fit the Extension model at all; Section 2.2 states this explicitly as a scoping boundary rather than a silent omission. This document is, above all, a transparency mechanism for a privacy-sensitive practice, not a tracking implementation.

Status of This Document

This document is part of the ONP Extension series (ONP-3000-3999). It is directly implementable. It is a Working Draft.

Normative Language

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174], per the interpretation established in ONP-0000.

1. Introduction

The original architecture draft this series formalizes listed "Analytics Attestation" among its anticipated future modules, without specifying what it would actually contain. Working through that concretely surfaces a real design tension: an attestation — a periodic, signed snapshot of aggregate metrics — has exactly the independent identity and lifecycle (published at a point in time, superseded by a later snapshot) that would make it a Companion, not an Extension, per the same decision test applied throughout this series. This document does not force that concept into the Extension shape it does not fit. Instead, it defines the part of "analytics" that genuinely is a property of an existing Object: transparency about how tracking works, not what the numbers currently say.

2. Scope

2.1 In Scope

• tracking_method, third_party_trackers, consent_required, and retention_period — declarative transparency fields about how engagement with this content is tracked;
• the one Claim Domain this Extension declares;
• the explicit architectural note on why live metrics are out of scope (Section 2.2) and what shape a future mechanism for them would need (Section 4.8).

2.2 Out of Scope

This document does NOT define:

• view counts, engagement metrics, or any other live, continuously- changing analytics data — embedding these in a signed Object would require re-signing on every change, which is impractical and inconsistent with the immutable-once-signed model every other document in this series relies on (ONP-1002, ONP-1003);
• a periodic "Analytics Attestation" snapshot mechanism — this would need independent identity and lifecycle (a new snapshot supersedes an old one, exactly as ONP-0006 already models for content), making it Companion-shaped, not Extension-shaped. It is out of scope here and would need its own future document, outside the current roadmap, if built (Section 4.8);
• legal interpretation of consent requirements under any jurisdiction's data protection or e-privacy law — consistent with Principle P5, consent_required is a declarative signal, not a compliance determination.

3. Terminology

This document introduces no new general terms beyond its namespace and Claim Domain registration (Section 4).

4. Requirements

4.1 Extension Namespace Declaration

This Extension's fields MUST be carried under onp:extensions.org.onp.analytics.

4.2 Companion-vs-Extension Classification

Does "Analytics" (as scoped by this document: tracking-methodology
disclosure, not live metrics) have independent identity and an
independent lifecycle, separable from the Object it describes?

- Tracking methodology (what kind of tracking applies to this
  content) is inherently a property of the Object it describes; it
  has no standalone existence a reader would reference on its own.
- NO -> Extension, for the scope this document actually covers.

(Contrast: a live-metrics snapshot, explicitly out of scope per
Section 2.2, WOULD satisfy the independent-identity test and would
need Companion treatment instead — this is precisely why this
document does not attempt to cover it.)

4.3 Content Schema

tracking_method, third_party_trackers, consent_required, and retention_period are all OPTIONAL, under the single Claim Domain analytics-tracking-disclosure (Section 4.7).

4.4 Tracking Method

tracking_method, if present, MUST be one of "none", "aggregate-only", "cookie-based", "server-side", or "third-party".

4.5 Third-Party Trackers

third_party_trackers, if present, MUST be an array of strings (domain names or vendor identifiers) naming third-party analytics or advertising-technology providers involved when tracking_method: "third-party" applies.

4.6 Consent Requirement

consent_required, if present, MUST be a boolean. Its absence establishes no default assumption — unlike indexable (ONP-3200), where a permissive default matched established web convention, tracking consent carries privacy and, commonly, legal stakes closer in kind to Rights (ONP-2400) and AI training permission (ONP-3100), where this series consistently declines to assume a default.

4.7 Claim Domain

This Extension declares one Claim Domain: analytics-tracking-disclosure, covering all four fields in Section 4.3. It MUST be registered in ONP-0002 alongside this document's publication (Section 10.3).

4.8 Future Work: Analytics Attestation

A future mechanism for periodic, signed metric snapshots — closer to what "Analytics Attestation" originally suggested — remains plausible future work. Per Section 4.2's contrast, it would need independent identity and lifecycle and would therefore be a Companion, not an addition to this Extension. This document does not reserve a number or namespace for it; a future proposal would follow the ordinary Companion registration process (ONP-2000 Section 4.1) if and when it is designed.

5. Object Model

{
  "onp:extensions": {
    "org.onp.analytics": {
      "tracking_method": "'none' | 'aggregate-only' | 'cookie-based' | 'server-side' | 'third-party', OPTIONAL",
      "third_party_trackers": ["string", "..."],
      "consent_required": "boolean, OPTIONAL, no default",
      "retention_period": "string (ISO 8601 duration), OPTIONAL"
    }
  }
}

6. Processing Model

6.1 Consumption

A privacy-conscious client, reader tool, or browser extension MAY use tracking_method and third_party_trackers to decide whether to block trackers or warn a user before loading the publisher's own rendering of the content, analogous in purpose (though not in mechanism) to app-store-style privacy nutrition labels — an existing, recognizable pattern this document aligns with rather than reinvents, per Principle P3.

6.2 Interoperability

A Node without this Extension implemented simply does not see tracking-methodology disclosure; the Object itself remains fully verifiable and usable regardless. This Extension is Companion- agnostic, exactly as ONP-3100 and ONP-3200 already are.

7. Examples

7.1 Aggregate-Only, No Third Parties

{
  "onp:extensions": {
    "org.onp.analytics": {
      "tracking_method": "aggregate-only",
      "consent_required": false
    }
  }
}

7.2 Third-Party Tracking Disclosed

{
  "onp:extensions": {
    "org.onp.analytics": {
      "tracking_method": "third-party",
      "third_party_trackers": ["example-analytics-vendor.com"],
      "consent_required": true,
      "retention_period": "P26M"
    }
  }
}

8. Security Considerations

Like every declarative field in this series, tracking_method and its companions are publisher-asserted and not independently verified — a publisher could under-disclose third-party tracking with no technical mechanism in this document to detect it. This document's value is giving publishers who want to disclose accurately a standard, signed place to do so; it is not, and cannot be, a technical enforcement or verification mechanism for actual tracking behavior.

9. Privacy Considerations

This entire Extension exists in service of a privacy concern: engagement tracking is one of the more consequential forms of data collection tied to news consumption, revealing reading habits and interests readers may reasonably consider sensitive. This document deliberately does not collect or transmit any tracking data itself — it only lets a publisher disclose, in a signed and verifiable way, what tracking approach applies. Readers, tools, and regulators evaluating a publisher's actual practice should treat this disclosure as a starting point for scrutiny, not as proof of compliance; per Section 8, nothing here is independently verified against actual behavior.

10. References

10.1 Normative References

• [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119.
• [RFC8174] Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC 2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174.
• ONP-0001, Architecture — Section 4.4, the decision test applied (and contrasted against the out-of-scope Companion case) in Section 4.2.
• ONP-0003, Design Principles — Principle P3 (Ordinary Technology, Section 6.1) and Principle P5 (Jurisdiction Neutrality, Section 2.2).
• ONP-1002, Serialization; ONP-1003, Digital Signatures — the immutable-once-signed model that motivates excluding live metrics (Section 2.2).
• ONP-2400, Rights; ONP-3100, AI Metadata — the no-default-assumption precedent Section 4.6 follows for consent_required.
• ONP-3000, Extension Framework — Section 4.1 (namespace registration), Section 4.3 (Claim Domain declaration).
• ONP-3200, Search — the permissive-default precedent Section 4.6 explicitly does NOT follow, with the reasoning for that divergence stated there.

10.2 Informative References

• App-store-style privacy nutrition labels — the existing transparency-disclosure pattern this Extension's purpose aligns with (Section 6.1).

10.3 Registry Registration

As part of this document's publication, org.onp.analytics and analytics-tracking-disclosure are registered in ONP-0002.

Appendix A: Full Schema Reference

{
  "onp:extensions": {
    "org.onp.analytics": {
      "tracking_method": "enum, OPTIONAL",
      "third_party_trackers": "array of strings, OPTIONAL",
      "consent_required": "boolean, OPTIONAL, no default",
      "retention_period": "string (ISO 8601 duration), OPTIONAL"
    }
  }
}

Appendix B: Analytics Extension Checklist

[ ] Fields carried under onp:extensions.org.onp.analytics
[ ] No live metrics (view counts, engagement figures) have been
    added here — explicitly out of scope (Section 2.2)
[ ] tracking_method, if present, is one of the five recognized
    values
[ ] consent_required, if absent, is understood as undisclosed, NOT
    false (Section 4.6 — no default, unlike ONP-3200's indexable)
[ ] third_party_trackers populated whenever tracking_method is
    "third-party"

End of Document