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• What is PII ? Your introduction to personally identifiable information

  15 janvier 2020, par Joselyn Khor — Analytics Tips, Privacy, Security
  Most websites you visit collect information about you via tools like Google Analytics and Matomo – sometimes collecting personally identifiable information (PII).

  When it comes to PII, people are becoming more concerned about data privacy. Identifiable information can be used for illegal purposes like identity theft and fraud. 

  So how can you protect yourself as an innocent internet browser ? In the case of website owners – how do you protect users and your company from falling prey to privacy breaches ?

  

  As one of the most trusted analytics companies, we feel our readers would benefit from being as informed as possible about data privacy issues and PII. Learn what it means, and what you can do to keep yours or others’ information safe.

  Table of Contents

  What does PII stand for ?

  PII acronym

  PII is an acronym for personally identifiable information.

  PII definition

  Personally identifiable information (PII) is a term used predominantly in the United States.

  The appendix of OMB M-10-23 (Guidance for Agency Use of Third-Party Website and Applications) gives this definition for PII :

  “The term ‘personally identifiable information’ refers to information which can be used to distinguish or trace an individual’s identity, such as their name, social security number, biometric records, etc. alone, or when combined with other personal or identifying information which is linked or linkable to a specific individual, such as date and place of birth, mother’s maiden name, etc.”

  What can be considered personally identifiable information (PII) ? Some PII examples :

  • Full name/usernames
  • Home address/mailing address
  • Email address
  • Credit card numbers
  • Date of birth
  • Phone numbers
  • Login details

  • Precise locations
  • Account numbers
  • Passwords
  • Security codes (including biometric records)
  • Personal identification numbers
  • Driver license number
  • Get a more comprehensive list here

  What’s non-PII ?

  Anonymous information, or information that can’t be traced back to an individual, can be considered non-PII.

  Who is affected by the exploitation of PII ?

  Anyone can be affected by the exploitation of personal data, where you have identity theft, account fraud and account takeovers. When websites resort to illegally selling or sharing your data and compromising your privacy, the fear is falling victim to such fraudulent activity. 

  PII can also be an issue when employees have access to the database and the data is not encrypted. For example, anyone working in a bank can access your accounts ; anyone working at Facebook may be able to read your messages. This shows how privacy breaches can easily happen when employees have access to PII.

  Website owner’s responsibility for data privacy (PII and analytics)

  To respect your website visitor’s privacy, best practice is to avoid collecting PII whenever possible. If you work in an industry which requires people to disclose personal information (e.g. healthcare, security industries, public sector), then you must ensure this data is collected and handled securely. 

  

  The US National Institute of Standards and Technology states : “The likelihood of harm caused by a breach involving PII is greatly reduced if an organisation minimises the amount of PII it uses, collects, and stores. For example, an organisation should only request PII in a new form if the PII is absolutely necessary.” 

  How you’re held accountable remains up to the privacy laws of the country you’re doing business in. Make sure you are fully aware of the privacy and data protection laws that relate specifically to you. 

  To reduce the risk of privacy breaches, try collecting as little PII as you can ; purging it as soon as you can ; and making sure your IT security is updated and protected against security threats. 

  If you’re using data collection tools like web analytics, data may be tracked through features like User ID, custom variables, and custom dimensions. Sometimes they are also harder to identify when they are present, for example, in page URLs, page titles, or referrers URLs. So make sure you’re optimising your web analytics tools’ settings to ensure you’re asking your users for consent and respecting users’ privacy.

  If you’re using a GDPR compliant tool like Matomo, learn how you can stop processing such personal data

  PII, GDPR and businesses in the US/EU

  Because PII is broad, you may run into confusion when considering PII and GDPR (which applies in the EU). The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provides more safeguards for user privacy.

  GDPR grants people in the EU more rights concerning their “personal data” (more on PII vs personal data below). In the EU the GDPR restricts the collection and processing of personal data. The repercussions are severe penalties and fines for privacy infringements. Businesses are required to handle this personal data carefully. You can be fined up to 4% of their yearly revenue for data breaches or non-compliance. 

  

  Although there isn’t an overarching data protection law in the US, there are hundreds of laws on both the federal and state levels to protect the personal data of US residents. US Congress has also enacted industry-specific statutes related to data privacy, and the state of California passed the California Consumer Privacy Act. 

  To be on the safe side, if you are using analytics, follow matters relating to “personal data” in the GDPR. It’s all-encompassing when it comes to protecting user privacy. GDPR rules still apply whenever an EU citizen visits any non EU site (that processes personal data).

  Personally identifiable information (PII) vs personal data

  PII and “personal data” aren’t used interchangeably. All personal data can be PII, but not all PII can be defined as personal data.

  The definition of “personal data” according to the GDPR :

  

  This means “personal data” encompasses a greater number of identifiers which include the online sphere. Examples include : IP addresses and URL names. As well as seemingly “innocent” data like height, job position, company etc. 

  What’s considered personal data depends on the context. If a piece of information can be combined with others to establish someone’s identity then that can be considered personal data. 

  Under GDPR, when processing personal data, you need explicit consent. You need to ensure you’re compliant according to GDPR definitions of “personal data” not just what’s considered “PII”.

  How Matomo deals with PII and personal data

  Although Matomo Analytics is a web analytics software that tracks user activity on your website, we take privacy and PII very seriously – on both our Cloud and On-Premise offerings. 

  If you’re using Matomo and would like to know how you can be fully GDPR compliant and protect user privacy, read more :
  

  • Learn how to not process any personally identifiable information – Anonymise IP addresses, user IDs, and order IDs
  • Matomo protects user privacy by talking the talk and walking the walk
  • Stay ahead of the GDPR with a privacy-respecting analytics platform
  • 11 ways Matomo helps you protect your visitor’s privacy

  Disclaimer

  We are not lawyers and don’t claim to be. The information provided here is to help give an introduction to issues you may encounter when dealing with PII. We encourage every business and website to take data privacy seriously and discuss these issues with your lawyer if you have any concerns. 

  Additional resources :

  • https://www.consumeraffairs.com/finance/identity-theft-statistics.html#identity-theft-trends-in-2019
  • https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection_en
  • https://iclg.com/practice-areas/data-protection-laws-and-regulations/usa
  • https://www.csoonline.com/article/3215864/how-to-protect-personally-identifiable-information-pii-under-gdpr.html
  • https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/key-definitions/what-is-personal-data/

• How to Choose a GDPR Compliant Web Analytics Solution

  2 mars 2022, par Matthieu Aubry — Privacy

  Since the launch of GDPR, one big question has lingered around with uncertainty – is Google Analytics GDPR compliant ? The current GDPR enforcement trend happening across the EU is certainly shedding some light on this question.

  Starting with the Austrian Data Protection Authority’s ruling on Google Analytics and more recently, CNIL (the French Data Protection Authority) has followed suit by also ruling Google Analytics illegal to use. Organisations with EU-based web visitors are now scrambling to find a compliant solution.

  The French Data Protection Authority (CNIL) has already started delivering formal notices to websites using Google Analytics, so now is the time to act. According to CNIL, organisations have two options :

  1. Ceasing use of the Google Analytics functionality (under the current conditions) 
  2. Use a compliant web analytics tool that does not transfer data outside the EU

  Getting started 

  For organisations considering migrating to a compliant web analytics tool, I’ve outlined below the things you need to consider when weighing up compliant web analytics tools. Once you’ve made a choice, I’ve also included a step-by-step guide to migrating away from Google Analytics. This guide is useful regardless of which GDPR compliant analytics provider you choose.

  Before getting started, I recommend that you document your findings against the following considerations while reviewing GDPR compliant Google Analytics alternatives. This document can then be shared with your Data Protection Officer (DPO) to get their final recommendation.

  10 key considerations when selecting a GDPR compliant web analytics tools

  Many tools will claim to be GDPR compliant so it’s important that you do your due diligence and review tools against the following considerations. 

  1. Where does the tool store data ? 

  The rulings in France and Austria were based on the fact that Google Analytics stores data in the US, which does not have an adequate level of data protection. Your safest option is to find a tool that legally stores data in the EU.

  You should be able to find out where the data is stored in the organisation’s privacy policy. Generally, data storage information can be found under sections titled “Subprocessors” and “Third-party services”. Check out the Matomo Privacy Policy as an example. 

  If you’re unable to easily find this information or it’s unclear, reach out to the organisation for more information.

  2. Does the tool offer anonymous tracking ?

  Anonymous tracking comes with many benefits, including :

  • The ability to track visitors without a cookie consent screen. Due to the privacy-respecting aspect of cookieless tracking, you don’t need to worry about the extra steps involved with compliant cookie banners.
  • More accurate data. When visitors deny tracking cookies, you lose out on valuable data. With anonymous tracking there is no data lost as you don’t need consent to track.
  • Simplified GDPR compliance. With this enabled, there are fewer steps you need to take to get GDPR compliant and stay GDPR compliant.

  For those reasons, it may be important for you to select a tool that offers anonymous tracking functionalities. The level of anonymous tracking you require will depend on your situation but you should look out for tools that allow you to :

  • Disable fingerprinting 
  • Disable user profiles 
  • Anonymise data
  • Cookieless tracking

  If you want to read more about data anonymization, check out this guide on data anonymization in web analytics.

  3. Does the tool integrate with my existing tech stack ?

  You’ll want to ensure that a new web analytics tool will play well with other tools in your tech stack including things like your CMS (content management system), eCommerce shop, etc. You should list out all the existing tools that currently integrate with your Google Analytics and check that the same integrations can be re-created with the new tool, via integrations or APIs.

  If not, it could become costly trying to connect your existing tech stack to a new solution.

  4. Does the tool offer the same features and insights you are currently using in Google Analytics ? Or more, if necessary ? 

  Just because you are moving to a new web analytics platform, doesn’t mean you have to give up the insights, reports and features you’ve grown accustomed to with Google Analytics. Ensuring that a new platform provides the same features and reports that you value the most will result in a smoother transition away from Google Analytics.

  It’s unlikely that a new tool will have all of the same features as Google Analytics, so I’d recommend listing out and prioritising your business-critical features and reports. 

  If I had to guess, you probably set up Google Analytics years ago because it was the default option. Now is your chance to make the most of this switch from Google Analytics and find a tool that offers additional reports and features that better aligns with your business. If time permits, I’d highly recommend that you consider other features or reports that you might have been missing out on while using Google Analytics.

  Check out this comparison of Google Analytics vs Matomo to see side-by-side feature comparison.

  5. Does the tool accept Google Analytics data imports ? 

  The historical data in Google Analytics is a critical asset for many businesses. Fortunately, some tools accept Google Analytics data imports so you don’t lose all of the data you’ve generated over time.

  However, it’s important to note that any data you import from Google Analytics to a new tool needs to be compliant data. I’ll cover this more below.

  6. Does the tool provide conversion tracking exports ? 

  Do you invest in paid advertising ? If you do, then tracking the conversions from people clicking on these paid ads is critical in assessing your return on investment. Since sending IP addresses or other personal information to the US is illegal under GDPR, we can only assume that this will also apply to advertising pixel/conversion tracking (e.g., Facebook pixel, Google Ads conversion tracking, etc). 

  As an example, Matomo offers conversion tracking exports so you can get a better understanding of ad performance while meeting privacy laws and without requiring consent from users. See how it works with Matomo’s conversion tracking exports. 

  7. How will you train up your in-house team ? Or can you hire a contractor ?

  This is a common concern of many, and rightfully so. You’ll want to confirm what resources are readily available so you can hit the ground running with your new web analytics tool. If you’d prefer to train up your in-house team, check the provider’s site for training resources, videos, guides, etc.

  If you’d rather hire an external contractor, we recommend heading to LinkedIn, reaching out to your community or asking the provider if they have any recommendations for contractors.

  In addition, check that the provider offers technical support or a forum, in case you have specific questions and need help.   

  8. Does the tool offer self-hosting ? (optional)

  For organisations that want full control over their data and storage location, an on-premise web analytics tool will be the preferred option. From a GDPR perspective, this is also the easiest option for compliance.

  Keep in mind that this requires resources, regular maintenance, technical knowledge and/or technical consultants. If you’re unsure which option is best for your organisation, check out our on-premise vs cloud web analytics comparison breakdown.

  Find out more about self-hosting Matomo.

  9. Is the tool approved by the CNIL for tracking without consent ?

  This is an important step for websites with French users. This step will help narrow down your selection of tools. The CNIL offers a programme to identify web analytics solutions that can be used without tracking consent. The CNIL’s list of recommended web analytics tools can act as your starting point for solutions to review.

  While this step is specific to sites with French users, it can also be helpful for websites with visitors from any other EU country.

  Benefits of consent-free tracking

  There are many benefits of tracking without consent.
  

  For one, it simplifies GDPR compliance and reduces the chances of GDPR breaches and fines. Cookie consent screens have recently been the target for EU Data Protection Authorities because many websites are unknowingly serving cookie consent screens that do not meet GDPR requirements. 

  Yet another benefit, and quite possibly the most important is more accurate data. Even if a website displays a user-friendly, lawful consent screen, the majority of users will either ignore or reject cookie consent. Legally website owners can’t track anything unless the visitor gives consent. So not having a cookie consent screen ensures that every visit is tracked and your web analytics data is 100% accurate. 

  Lastly, many visitors have grown fatigued and frustrated with invasive cookie consent screens. Not having one on your site creates a user-friendly experience, which will likely result in longer user sessions and lower bounce rates.

  10. Does the tool offer a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) ? 

  Technically, any GDPR compliant web analytics tool should offer a DPA but for the sake of completeness, I’ve added this as a consideration. Double check that any tools you are looking at provide this legally binding document. This should be located in the Privacy Policy of the web analytics provider, if not reach out to request it.

  As an example, here’s Matomo’s Data Processing Agreement which can be found in our Privacy Policy under Subprocessors. 

  That wraps up the key considerations. When it comes to compliance, privacy and customer data, Matomo leads the way. We are looking forward to helping you achieve GDPR compliance easily. Start your free 21-day trial of Matomo now – no credit card required.

  Try Matomo Cloud

  A step-by-step guide to migrating from Google Analytics

  Once you’ve identified a tool that suits your needs and your Data Protection Officer (DPO) has approved, you’re ready to get started. Here’s a simple step-by-step guide with all the important steps for you to follow :

  1. Before getting started, you should sign or download the Data Processing Agreement (DPA) offered by your new web analytics provider.

  2. Register for the new tool and configure it for compliance. The provider should offer guides on how to configure for GDPR compliance. This will include things like giving your users an easy way to opt-out of all tracking, turning on cookieless tracking or asking users for consent and anonymizing data and IP addresses, for instance.

  3. Inform your organisation about the change. Whether your colleagues use the tool or not, it’s important that you share information about the new tool with your staff. Let them know what the tool will be used for, who will use the tool and how it complies with GDPR. 

  4. Let your DPO know that you’ve removed Google Analytics and have implemented the new tool.

  5. Update your records of processing activities to include the new tool.

  6. Update your privacy policy. You’ll need to include details about the web analytics provider, where the data is stored, what data is being collected, how long the data will be stored and why the data is being collected. The web analytics tool should readily have this information for you.

  As an example, if you decide to use Matomo as your web analytics tool, we provide a Privacy Policy template for you to use on your site and a guide on how to complete your privacy policy under GDPR with Matomo. Note that these are only applicable if you are using Matomo.

  In addition, if the tool has an opt-out feature, you will also need to put the opt-out into the privacy policy (e.g., when using cookieless tracking).

  7. Now, the exciting part. Add the tracking code to your site by following the steps provided by the web analytics tool. 

  If you’re not comfortable with this step, the provider should offer steps to do this and you can share this with your web developer.

  8. Once added, login to your tool and check to see if traffic is being tracked.

  9. If your tool does not offer Google Analytics data imports or you do not need the historical data in your new tool, go to step 11. 

  To plan for your Google Analytics data migration, you’ll first need to establish what historical data is compliant with GDPR.

  For example, you shouldn’t import any data stored beyond the retention period established in your Privacy Policy or any personally identifiable information (PII) like IP addresses that aren’t anonymised. Discuss this further with your DPO.

  10. Once you’ve established what data you can legally import, then you can begin the import. Follow the steps provided by your new web analytics solution provider.

  11. Remove Google Analytics tracking code from your site. This will stop the collection of your visitors data by Google as well as slightly increase the page load speed.

  If you still haven’t made a choice yet, try Matomo free for 21-days and see why over 1 million websites choose Matomo. 

• How to use web analytics to acquire new customers

  2 septembre 2020, par Joselyn Khor — Analytics Tips, Marketing
  Are you investing time and money into marketing your business and unsure if it’s paying off ? Web analytics provides the tools and insights to help you know which marketing channels to target and focus on. Without it you might be going in blind and missing opportunities that might’ve been easily found in your metrics.

  Attracting the right visitors to your website

  To help acquire new customer on your website, you firstly need to attract the right visitors to your website. Then capturing their attention and engaging them in your content. Finally you’ll want to convert by driving them through a streamlined funnel/buyer’s journey on your website all backed up by data.

  So, how do you attract audiences to your site with a web analytics tool like Matomo ?

  1. Figure out who your audience is through the Visitor Profiles feature. 
  2. Calculate the Cost of Customer Acquisition (CAC) to plan for growth. To grow and make your business/website sustainable, you’ll need to earn more money from a customer than you spend on acquiring them. How to calculate : Divide marketing spend by the number of customers acquired. 
  3. Figure out which marketing channels e.g., social media, PPC, SEO, content marketing, etc., you should invest more in and which of those you should focus less on.

  How Matomo helps businesses acquire new customers 

  1. Use the Acquisitions feature
  2. Use funnels
  3. Study Visitor Profiles
  4. Focus on SEO efforts
  5. Look at the Multi Attribution feature
  6. Set goals
  7. Set Advanced eCommerce reporting

  1. Use the Acquisitions feature

  Matomo Analytics has a dedicated Acquisition feature to help with some of the heavy-lifting, making it easy for you to formulate targeted acquisition plans.

  

  This feature helps you learn who your potential customers are and figure out what marketing channels are converting the best for these visitors.

  • Learn what traffic you get from external websites : Knowing who’s helping you succeed from external websites is a crucial step to be able to focus your attention. Paid sponsorships, guest blog posts or even spending more on advertising on the particular website could result in greater traffic.

  • Social Networks : See which social media channels are connecting with the audiences you want. Take the guesswork out by using only the ones you need. By finding out which social channels your ideal audience prefers, you can generate shareable, convincing and engaging content to drive shares and traffic through to your site.

  • Campaigns : Your marketing team may have spent precious time and resource coming up with campaigns that are designed to succeed, but how can you be so sure ? With Campaigns you can understand what marketing campaigns are working, what aren’t, and shift your marketing efforts accordingly to gain more visitors, more effectively, with less costs. Keep track of every ad and content piece you display across internal and external channels to see which is having the biggest impact on your business objectives. Learn more

  

  Watch this video to learn about the Acquisitions feature

  2. Use funnels

  Creating conversion funnels gives you the big picture on whether your acquisition plans are paying off and where they may be falling short.

  

  If the ultimate goal of your site is to drive conversions, then each funnel can tell you how effectively you’re driving traffic through to your desired outcome.

  By integrating this with Visitor Profiles, you can view historic visitor profiles of any individual user at any stage of the conversion funnel. You see the full user journey at an individual level, including where they entered the funnel from and where they exited. Learn more

  How to amplify acquisition strategies with Funnels : Use conversion funnels to guide acquisition as you can tell which entry point is bringing the most success and which one needs more attention. Tailor your strategies to zone in on areas that have the most potential. You can identify where your visitors are encountering obstacles from the start, that are stopping them from progressing through their journey on your site.

  3. Study Visitor Profiles

  Visitor Profiles helps you understand visitors on a user-by-user basis, detailing each visitors’ history into a profile which summarises every visit, action and purchase made.

  

  Better understand :

  • Why your visitors viewed your website.

  • Why your returning visitors continue to view your website.

  • What specifically your visitors are looking for and whether they found it on your website.

  The benefit is being able to see how a combination of acquisition channels play a part in a single buyer’s journey.

  How Visitor Profiles helps with acquisition : By understanding the full behavioural patterns of any individual user coming through from external channels, you’ll see the path that led them to take action, where they may have gotten lost, and how engaged they are with your business over time. This gives you an indication of what kinds of visitors you’re attracting and helps you craft a buyer persona that more accurately reflects the audience most interested in you.

  TRY IT FOR FREE

  4. Focus on SEO efforts

  Every acquisition plan needs a focus on maximising your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts. When it comes to getting conclusive search engine referrer metrics, you need to be sure you’re getting ALL the insights to drive your SEO strategy.

  Integrate Google, Bing and Yahoo search consoles directly into your Matomo Analytics. This helps kickstart your acquisition goals as you rank highly for keywords that get the most traffic to your website.

  As another major SEO benefit, you can see how the most important search keywords to your business increased and decreased in ranking over time. 

  How to amplify acquisitions strategies with search engines and keywords : By staying on top of your competitors across ALL search engines, you may uncover traffic converting highly from one search engine, or find you could be losing traffic and business opportunities to your competitors across others.

  5. Look at the Multi Attribution feature

  Multi Attribution lets you measure the success of every touchpoint in the customer journey.

  

  Accurately measure (and assign value to) channels where visitors first engaged with your business, where they came from after that, as well as the final channel they came from before purchasing your product or service.

  No longer falsely over-estimate any marketing channel and make smarter decisions when determining acquisition spend to accurately calculate the Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). Learn more

  6. Set your Goals

  What are the acquisition goals you want to achieve the most ? The Goals feature lets you measure the most important metrics you need to grow your business.

  

  Goals are crucial for building your marketing strategy and acquiring new customers. The more goals you track, the more you can learn about behavioural changes as you implement and modify paths that impact acquisition and conversions over time. You’ll understand which channels are converting the best for your business, which cities/countries are most popular, what devices will attract the most visitors and how engaged your visitors are before converting.

  This way you can see if your campaigns (SEO, PPC, signups, blogs etc.) or optimising efforts (A/B Testing, Funnels) have made an impact with the time and investment you have put in. Learn more

  7. Set Advanced Ecommence reporting

  If your website’s overall purpose is to generate revenue whether it be from an online store, asking for donations or from an online paid membership site ; the Ecommerce feature gives you comprehensive insights into your customers’ purchasing behaviours.

  

  When you use Ecommerce analytics, you heavily reduce risk when marketing your products to potential customers because you will understand who to target, what to target them with and where further opportunities exist to have the greatest impact for your business. Learn more

  Key takeaway

  Having the tools to ensure you’re creating a well planned acquisition strategy is key to attracting and capturing the attention of potential visitors/leads, and then driving them through a funnel/buyer’s journey on your website. Because of Matomo’s reputation as a trusted analytics platform, the features above can be used to assist you in making smarter data-driven decisions. You can pursue different acquisition avenues with confidence and create a strategy that’s agile and ready for success, all while respecting user privacy.

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  Want to learn how to increase engagement with Matomo ? Click here. We’ll go through how you can boost engagement on your website via web analytics.