Why are certain reports in Analytics not providing expected results after anonymizing user data?

Question

Why are certain reports in Analytics not providing expected results? We have been attempting to create a report based in the Requests Subject Area, but it is not providing the necessary information about Request activity. 

Answer

Unfortunately, situations like this can happen when using Patron Anonymization within an institution. Once anonymization is performed, any report that relies on user-specific data from the Users Subject Area may no longer return the results needed. This will vary from report to report, and the fields and filters used, but any report created that relies on user-specific data for its results will be negatively affected. 

For example:

A report in the Requests SA has been designed to base its results on the value of the Creator field - in this context, the report is a means of tracking the origin of Fulfillment Network requests. When the request is physical, the Creator value will be a System value that contains the requesting IZ's code. However, when working with the same report but attempting to track digital requests, the Creator value will instead be a value specific to the requesting patron. 

If anonymization is applied to the Analytics data, this removes user data values from many fields. In this example, it means that the Creator field for digital requests will no longer contain values, whereas for physical requests it will remain. Though this does cause the report for digital requests to no longer function as built, it is expected to occur given the deletion of user data. 

• Article last edited: 14-Sep-2023