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Problem with PII and Users Cache

Page removed is showing pageviews after 10 days.

DavidWeb

9:38 am on Jun 26, 2015 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member

Hi,

Due to our ignorance, we were sending emails (newsletter) with links with Personal Identificable Information (PII). Example: download.php?email=example@example.com
And a month ago, we received a notification from Google Adsense about a URL sending Personal Identifiable Information (PII).

On June 15 we removed that URL, and created a htaccess rule to redirect to the home-page if a "@" is found on the URL (or a "name=", and similar things).
We have also removed Adsense ads from that site.

The problems is that after 10 days, google analytics is showing pageviews of that url (example: mydomain.com/download.php?email=example@example.com").
And of course, google adsense is saying that we are showing ads on URL sending PII.

But that page was removed 10 days ago! and a redirection was created.
Why is google analyticis showing pageviews there?

Before removing the page, that url was having about 10,000 pageviews/day, now is about 1 or 2 per day. But that's not enough for google adsense.

What's the problem? Is a problem with user cache? with ISP cache? (that pages are not indexed on google.com).

Thank you so much for your help.

netmeg

12:49 pm on Jun 26, 2015 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member

10+ Year Member

Top Contributors Of The Month

Did you test your redirect with something like http live headers to make sure it's doing a 301? If people are still clicking on it from the newsletter and the redirect wasn't done right, it might still show up in Analytics. However, if you've taken the AdSense off the site/pages, then they shouldn't still be bugging you. I'd contact support.

DavidWeb

3:52 pm on Jun 26, 2015 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member

The 301 is working properly. I'm sure that's not the problem. Page is not loading, NEVER.
But i see pageviews on google analytics (1 or 2 per day).

I have even tried to stop the site, but pageviews are there. Some type of cache problem? I don't know what to do.

netmeg

12:02 am on Jun 27, 2015 (gmt 0)

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10+ Year Member

Top Contributors Of The Month

Like I said, contact support at least about the PII thing. As far as the pageviews - I got nothing. That shouldn't happen if there's a proper redirect there.

lucy24

1:00 am on Jun 27, 2015 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member

10+ Year Member

Top Contributors Of The Month

Oh, wait, there's one more possibility. Cross-check against your raw logs and see if you're getting spurious Analytics reports (where someone ran the javascript without ever requesting the page it's associated with). An even more remote possibility is that someone saved the page locally. If they didn't edit-out the Analytics code-- which most humans wouldn't know to do-- it will continue showing up as real visits to the page every time they open the local file.

DavidWeb

9:01 am on Jul 7, 2015 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member

I have removed adsense from full site, but still showing pageviews with PII in URLs... That's must be a cache problem or similar.
We hade gone from thousands of pageviews/day with PII, to 2 pageviews (false positives) in the last 10 days, but that's a problem.
That page is NOT in our web, and adsense was removed from full site to avoid problems.

What can i do? I can not contact adsense support because our account was disabled, so i can not ask for help. Account is +10 years old and we have a pending appeal.

DavidWeb

9:15 am on Jul 7, 2015 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member

Do you know where can i email to explain my problem?

netmeg

12:52 pm on Jul 7, 2015 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member

10+ Year Member

Top Contributors Of The Month

Nope. If you can't contact support then your only hope would be to ask in the Google AdSense Forum and hope you can catch the attention of a Top Contributor who will pass it on to Google. It's a longshot, but it might work.

Google's not big on second chances though, so you probably want a plan B.

DavidWeb

4:16 pm on Jul 7, 2015 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member

After a week, they reply with: We have reviewed your AdSense account and re-enabled the account for participation in the program.

Thank you!