"unspecified value" for Mobile devices in Adobe analytics

[jaishal]

Hey Everyone,

I am getting 10% of unique BAN's(Billing account number) as "unspecified" under device name(SDK) which is directly available from adobe mobile SDK. Please see attached screenshot.

1) Firstly, what do you mean by "Unspecified" under Device name?

2) Can user block Adobe from getting device information?

@Jennifer_Dungan 

[Deepika_S_V · Accepted solution]

1. Unspecified in Adobe Analytics means the information was not captured due to privacy settings or implementation issues.

https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/analytics/technotes/unspecified

2. Yes, users can block Adobe from collecting device information in several ways      

•  Privacy Settings – Users can disable tracking 
•  App Permissions – Some devices allow restricting data sharing.
•  Ad Blockers / VPNs – These can block data collection.
•  SDK Configuration – If not set up correctly, device info may not be collected.

[jaishal]

When you say "Unspecified in Adobe Analytics means the information was not captured due to privacy settings or implementation issues". What could be the implementation issue in device information as it is directly captured by adobe mobile sdk. 

What are the other scenarios under which data falls into "unspecified" for device information ?

[juliusonyancha]

Hi @jaishal  other scenarios:

1) eVar is set to persist beyond a page view or hit, and the value you are tracking is not available before the expiry.

2) eVar is only set to specific events, so any visit that doesn't trigger those events will be classed as unspecified.

Instead of using a visit metric, it might be worth using the eVar instance metric to exclude any unspecified traffic.

[jaishal]

But this is not an eVar which is set. This is like a out of the box dimension which is available from adobe itself right "Device Name (SDK)" . In such cases which visits would not capture device information?

[John_Man]

Hi @jaishal 

Are you using the latest AEP Mobile SDK with Edge Network?

We encountered something simialr where the iPhone13 ProMax is shown is Unspecified. It seems there is issue with the Datastream device mapping. But there is a workaround that can be done on the Adobe Launch level (if you are using the latest Mobile SDK). I can share more if this is the same issue as yours.

Thanks,

John