The Web Analytics services enable SharePoint Server 2010 customers to understand more about visits to their SharePoint sites. The Web Analytics services collect data about how end-users access SharePoint pages. Data that is collected by the Web Analytics services can include but is not limited to the following information:

• the site from which the end-user starts
  
  
• the keywords that the end-user uses to find the SharePoint site
  
  
• the pages viewed on the site
  
  
• the searches run on the site
  
  
• the browser type
  
  

Important:
None of this information is sent to Microsoft unless Microsoft hosts the SharePoint site.

• A SharePoint farm administrator can decide not to use the Web Analytics services. The administrator either does not create a Web Analytics Service Application or stops the Web Analytics services by using the following procedure.
  
  
  1. On the SharePoint Central Administration Web site, click System Settings.
     
     
  2. On the System Settings page, in the Servers section, click Manage services on server.
     
     
  3. In the Web Analytics Web Service row, in the Action column, click Stop.
     
     When the Web Analytics services are stopped, the storing, analysis, and reporting of visitor information are deactivated on all sites in the SharePoint farm.
     
     
• A SharePoint farm administrator can also decide not to log some data that the Web Analytics services ordinarily log.
  
  
  1. On the Central Administration Web site, on the Quick Launch, click Monitoring and in the Reporting section click Configure usage and health data collection.
     
     The Configure usage and health data collection page opens.
     
     
  2. In the Event Selection section, clear the Events to log check boxes to stop logging these data points.
     
     
• A SharePoint farm administrator can disable the reporting of Web Analytics services data for a specific site collection.
  
  
  1. On the top-level page of a site collection, on the Site Actions menu, click Site Settings.
     
     
  2. In the Site Collection Administration section, click Manage site collection features and, next to Advanced Web Analytics, click Deactivate.
     
     
• If a SharePoint farm administrator stops the Web Analytics services or decides not to log certain data, subsequent logging is stopped, but information that is already logged will not immediately be deleted or removed from Web Analytics reports. SharePoint farm administrators can also set the limit on the period that the data is retained in the Web Analytics warehouse database. After the limit is reached, the data does not show in Web Analytics reports because the data is no longer in the database. For example, if the administrator sets the data retention period to 1 month, only the data of the past month will appear in reports.
  
  To set the limit on the data retention period:
  
  
  1. On the Central Administration Web site, in the Application Management section, click Manage service applications.
     
     
  2. Select Web Analytics Service Application and on the ribbon click Properties.
     
     
  3. In the dialog box, set the data retention period, which can range from 1 month to 25 months.
     
     

The SharePoint Social Tagging and Note Boards feature in Microsoft Word 2010, Microsoft Excel 2010, and Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 enables users to tag or add notes to SharePoint pages and Internet pages and to add notes to files. By default, the SharePoint Social Tagging and Note Boards feature is turned on.

When a user adds tags or notes, the user’s user name is stored with the tag or note.

Users can decide to have their tags marked as private — so that the tags are not visible to other users — by selecting the Private check box on the Tag Entry dialog box or by marking their items private from their Tags and Notes pages. Notes cannot be marked as private.

SharePoint lets users add ratings to SharePoint list items and document library items. These ratings are also displayed on the activity feeds of users. User names are not displayed next to the ratings on SharePoint list items, document library items, or activity feeds. Microsoft SharePoint Server does store user names, and user names can be accessed through the SharePoint object model. By default, the SharePoint ratings feature is turned on. A SharePoint administrator can disable the ratings control on SharePoint pages for a site collection so that users can no longer rate items. The following is the Windows PowerShell command to disable the ratings control:

Disable-spfeature –id “915c240e-a6cc-49b8-8b2c-0bff8b553ed3” –url Site Collection Url –force –Confirm:$false

A SharePoint administrator must have both site collection administrator permissions and the Shell_Access and WSS_WPG Windows PowerShell permissions to perform this action.

This command only disables the controls on the Web pages and does not delete existing ratings or associated user names from the SharePoint database. Ratings and associated user name data can be deleted permanently by using the SharePoint object model.

My Site Web sites let users store and display personal information that other SharePoint users and applications can access. Users can personalize the appearance, behavior, and content of their My Site pages. Users can also update their SharePoint user profiles from their My Site pages. By default, some user information, such as name, account name, e-mail address, telephone number, and manager’s name, is included in the My Site and SharePoint profiles. A User Profile service administrator who has Manage Profile permissions can configure user profiles to include specific data in a user’s My Site and SharePoint profiles.

1. On the Central Administration Web site, in the Application Management section, click Manage service applications.
   
   
2. Click User Profile Service, and then click Manage User Profiles.
   
   

Each profile property has an associated privacy level. Microsoft SharePoint Server supports the following privacy levels:

Users can choose privacy levels that help ensure that data that is stored in their profiles is visible only to intended people. A User Profile Service administrator with Manage Profile permissions can configure a default privacy level for a profile property and enable users to override it. A SharePoint administrator can also enforce a privacy level on a particular profile property so that users cannot override it.

1. On the Central Administration Web site, click Manage service applications.
   
   
2. Click User Profile Service, and then click Profile services policies.
   
   

Except for the My Team and My Colleagues privacy levels, profile privacy levels are automatically computed by SharePoint Server. Users decide which people are at the My Team and My Colleagues privacy levels. My Colleagues refers to Colleague relationships that a user has identified. My Team is a subset of Colleagues who are specified by a user.

User Profile service administrators with Manage Profile permissions who manage the databases for profile data have access to all data regardless of privacy levels that users set.

The SharePoint Server Colleague Add-in feature in Microsoft Outlook 2010 scans a user’s sent e-mail folder to look for specific names and keywords and the frequency of those names and keywords. The list is updated periodically and stored under the user’s profile on his or her local computer. The list of possible colleagues is accessed by the Add Colleagues page on the My Site Web site, where users can choose the colleagues they want to add to their trusted My Site. A user can approve contact names and keywords before they are added to the Ask Me About Web Part, and a user can approve or reject each contact name or keyword. SharePoint administrators can turn off this functionality and prevent My Site Web sites from accessing this information by setting the following Group Policy setting registry key.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\Portal\ColleagueImport\Enabled

Values = DWORD 0 to turn it off and 1 to turn it on.

An end-user can turn off both or either the analysis of content in the Sent Items e-mail folder and the uploading of contact names and keywords to My Site by following these steps:

1. On the File menu of Outlook 2010, click Options.
   
   
2. In the Outlook Options dialog box, click Advanced.
   
   
3. In the Other section, clear the option that allows analysis of sent e-mails and subjects.
   
   

Activity Feed lets users add feeds of events to their My Site Web sites. Feeds might give information about activities of their Colleagues, such as updates to profile properties and creation of social tags and notes. Activity Feed does not enable tracking of activities that a user does not have permissions to see.

User Profile Service administrators who have Manage Social Metadata permissions can turn this feature off.

1. On the Central Administration Web site, on the Quick Launch, click Monitoring.
   
   
2. In the Timer Jobs section, click Review hob definitions.
   
   
3. Click User Profile Service – Activity Feed Job in the list of timer jobs.
   
   
4. On the Edit Timer Job page, click Disable.
   
   

Users choose their Colleagues for their My Site Web sites by selecting names of other users and setting them as Colleagues. When a user is selected as a Colleague, a notification e-mail message is sent to the new Colleague.

SharePoint Search Federation allows a SharePoint administrator to provide results from multiple search providers for user queries. By default, SharePoint Search Federation searches only local SharePoint content. A system administrator can add search providers, such as any third-party remote or online search engine.

If a SharePoint administrator adds a search provider, user queries are sent to that search provider, and the results returned by the search provider are displayed.

Information about the privacy practices of the Microsoft Bing search engine is at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=147849. Microsoft does not control the data collection and use practices of third-party search providers.

SharePoint search collects information about user search queries and about the search results that users select on their computers. SharePoint uses this information to improve the relevancy of search results and to improve query suggestions. SharePoint administrators can also create reports, depending on this information.

Query logging can be turned off as follows:

1. On the Central Administration Web site, click Application Management, and then click Manage service applications.
   
   
2. Click Search Service Application and in the System Status section of the Search Service Application page, click the Disable link next to Query logging.