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What is data anonymization in web analytics ?
Collecting information via web analytics platforms is needed to help a website grow and improve. When doing so, it’s best to strike a balance between getting valuable insights, and keeping the trust of your users by protecting their privacy.
This means not collecting or processing any personally identifiable information (PII). But what if your organisation requires you to collect PII?
That’s where data anonymization comes in.
What is data anonymization?
Data anonymization makes identifiable information unidentifiable. This is done through data processing techniques which remove or modify PII data. So data becomes anonymous and can’t be linked to any individual.
In the context of web analytics, data anonymization is handy because you can collect useful data while protecting the privacy of website visitors.
Why is data anonymization important?
Through modern threats of identity theft, credit card fraud and the like, data anonymization is a way to protect the identity and privacy of individuals. As well as protect private and sensitive information of organisations.
Data anonymization lets you follow the many laws around the world which protect user privacy. These laws provide safeguards around collecting personal data or personally identifiable information (PII), so data anonymization is a good solution to ensure you’re not processing such sensitive information.
In some cases, implementing data anonymization techniques means you can avoid having to show your users a consent screen. Which means you may not need to ask for consent in order to track data. This is a bonus as consent screens can annoy and stop people from engaging with your site.
GDPR and data anonymization
The GDPR is a law in the EU that limits the collection and processing of personal data. The aim is to give people more control over their online personal information. Which is why website owners need to follow certain rules to become GDPR compliant and protect user privacy. According to the GDPR, you can be fined up to 4% of your yearly revenue for data breaches or non-compliance.
In the case of web analytics, tools can be easily made compliant by following a number of steps.
This is why anonymizing data is a big deal.
Anonymized data isn’t personal data according to the GDPR:
“The principles of data protection should therefore not apply to anonymous information, namely information which does not relate to an identified or identifiable natural person or to personal data rendered anonymous in such a manner that the data subject is not or no longer identifiable.”
This means, you still get the best of both worlds. By anonymizing data, you’re still able to collect useful information like visitor behavioural data.
US privacy laws and data anonymization
In the US, there isn’t one single law that governs the protection of personal data, called personally identifiable information (PII). There are hundreds of federal and state laws that protect the personal data of US residents. As well as, industry-specific statutes related to data privacy, like the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
Website owners in the US need to know exactly what laws govern their area of business in order to follow them.
A general guideline is to protect user privacy regardless of whether you are or aren’t allowed to collect PII. This means anonymizing identifiable information so your website users aren’t put at risk.
Data anonymization techniques in Matomo Analytics
If you carry these out, you won’t need to ask your website visitors for tracking consent since anonymized data is no longer considered personal data under the GDPR.
- Anonymize previously tracked raw data – like visitors/visits
- Anonymize Visitor IP addresses
- Anonymize geo-location information (country, region, city)
- Pseudonymize User ID ( if you don’t want this data to land on your Matomo server, the solution is simply to not set the User ID. Then Matomo will use the normal anonymized IDs)
- Data can also be anonymized before it’s even sent to Matomo
- Learn how to further configure privacy settings in a web analytics tool like Matomo
- 11 ways Matomo Analytics helps you to protect your visitors privacy
The techniques listed above make it easy for you when using a tool like Matomo, as they are automatically anonymized.
Tools like Google Analytics on the other hand don’t provide some of the privacy options and leave it up to you to take on the burden of implementation without providing steps.
Data anonymization tools
If you’re a website owner who wants to grow your business or learn more about your website visitors, privacy-friendly tools like Matomo Analytics are a great option. By following the easy steps to be GDPR compliant, you can anonymize all data that could put your visitors at risk.
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5 perfect feature combinations to use with Heatmaps and Session Recordings
28 janvier 2020, par Jake Thornton — UncategorizedGaining valuable insights by simply creating a heatmap or setting up recordings on your most important web pages is a good start, but using the Heatmaps and Session Recordings features in combination with other Matomo features is where the real magic happens.
If you’re serious about significantly increasing conversions on your website to impact your bottom line, you need to accurately answer these questions:
- Are you analysing the most important pages that influence conversions?
- Are you segmenting heatmaps and recordings towards your most valuable visitors?
- Are you using these features to create better customer journeys?
- Have you identified current pain points for visitors before setting up heatmaps and recordings?
- Are you learning what content resonates best for your audience?
With Matomo Analytics, you have the ability to integrate heatmaps and session recordings with all the features of a powerful web analytics platform, which means you get the complete picture of your visitor’s experience of your website.
Here are five features that work with Heatmaps and Session Recordings to maximise conversions:
1. Behaviour feature with Heatmaps
Before creating heatmaps on pages you think are most important to your website, first check out Behaviour – Pages. Here you get valuable information around unique pageviews, bounce rate, average time on page and exit rates for every page on your website.
Use this data as your starting point for heatmaps. Here you’ll identify current pain points for your visitors before using heatmaps to analyse their interactions on these pages.
Here’s how to use the behaviour feature to determine which pages to setup heatmaps on:
- Make sure you know what pages are generating the most unique page views, it could be your blog rather than your homepage
- Which pages have the highest bounce rates – can you make some quick changes above-the-fold and see if this makes a difference
- When the average time on page is high, why are visitors so engaged with these pages? What keeps them reading? Setup a heatmap to learn more
- Reduce exit rates by moving them along to other pages on your website
- Determine some milestones you want to achieve e.g. use heatmaps as your visual guide to improve average time on page, bounce rates and exit rates. A milestone could be that the exit rate for your previous blog was 34%, work towards getting this down to 30%
2. Ecommerce feature and Custom Segments
If you run an ecommerce business, you may want to learn only about visitors who are more likely to be your customers. For example, if you find 65% of product sales come from customers based in New York, but visits to your product pages are from every state in the USA, how can you learn more specifically about visitors only from New York?
Using Segments to target a particular audience:
- First, make sure you have created heatmaps and recordings on the popular product pages you want to learn about your visitor’s interactions
- Note: Make sure the segment you create generates enough pageviews to apply a heatmap for more accurate results. We recommend a minimum of 1,000 page views per sample size.
- Then create a custom Segment – search Ecommerce and find the Product Name and select the product. Learn how to do this here.
Click on ‘Add a new segment’ or on the ‘edit’ link next to an existing segment name to open the segment editor:
Click on any item on the left to see the list of information you can segment by. In this case search “City”, then select “Is” and in the third column search “New York” (example in the image above):
You can also use the search box at the bottom to search through the whole list.
- This will give you insights across the Matomo platform based only on customers who purchased this product
- Then go to the Ecommerce feature – and find Sales. Here you will learn what your most popular locations are for your product sales.
- Once you know the location you want to segment, go back and update the custom Segment you just created. Click on the edit pencil icon and update it by selecting Add AND condition, and add the sub group you would like to track on the product page. In this example, select City – New York. Click Save & Apply.
Now you should have successfully created a segment for your popular product page with visitors only from New York.
Check out the heatmap or recordings you created for this page. You may be very surprised to see how this segment engaged with your website compared to all website visitors.
Note: If you run a lead generation website you can use the Goals feature instead of Ecommerce to track the success metrics you need.
3. Visitor Profiles within Session Recordings
Seeing visitor location, device, OS and browser for your recordings is very valuable, but it’s even more valuable to integrate visitor profiles with session recordings as you get to see everything that visitor has done on your website … ever!
What pages they visited before/after the recording, what actions they took, how long they spent on your website etc. All this is captured in the visitor profile of every individual session recording so you can see where exactly engaged viewers are in their journey with your business, for example:
- How has this visitor behaved on your website in the past?
- Is this visitor already a customer?
- Is this the visitors first time to your website and
- What other pages on your website are they interested in seeing in this session?
Use the visitor profiles feature within session recordings to understand the users better when watching each session.
You get the full picture of what role the page you recorded played in the overall experience of your website’s visitor. And more importantly, to see if they took the desired action you wanted them to take.
4. Funnels feature (premium feature)
The Funnels feature lets you see the customer journey from the first entry page through to the conversion page.
Once you create a funnel, you can see the % of visitors who drop off between pages on their way to converting.
In our example, you may then see page one to page two has a drop-off rate of 47%. Page two to page three 95% users drop-off rate and page three to page four 97.3% users drop-off rate.
Why is the drop-off rate so high from page two to page three and why is the drop-off rate so low from page three to page four?
So, you may need to simplify things on page one because you may unknowingly be offering your visitor an easy way out of the funnel. Maybe the visitor is stuck reading your content and not understanding the value of your offering.
Small tip for session recordings …
With session recordings especially you can see firsthand through live recordings where exactly visitors click away from the page which exits them from your conversion funnel. Take note to see if this is a recurring issue with other visitors, then take action into fixing this hole.
Whatever the case, work towards reducing drop-off rates through your conversion funnels by discovering where the problems exist, make changes and learn how these changes affect engagement through heatmaps and recordings.
5. A/B Testing feature (premium feature)
Following on from the example with the Funnels feature, once you identify there is a problem in your conversion funnel, how do you know what is preventing visitors from taking an action that pushes them to the next page in the funnel? You need to test different variations of content to see what works best for your visitors.
A/B Testing lets you test a variety of things, including:
- different headlines
- less copy vs more copy
- different call-to-actions
- different colour schemes
- entirely different page layouts
Once you’ve created two or more variations of specific landing pages in the conversion funnel, see how visitors interacted differently between the variations of landing pages through your heatmaps and recordings.
You may see that your visitors have scrolled further down the page because more content was provided or an important CTA button was clicked more due to a colour change. Whatever the case, using A/B testing with heatmaps and session recordings is an effective combination for increasing user engagement.
The conversion rate optimization (CRO) strategy
CRO is the process of learning what the most valuable content/aspect of your website is and how to best optimize this for your visitors to increase conversion chances.
Heatmaps and session recordings play a vital role in this strategy, but it’s how you work these features in tandem with other valuable Matomo features that will give you the most actionable insights you need to grow your business.
Want to learn how to create an effective CRO strategy?
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Data Privacy Day 2020
27 janvier 2020, par Matthieu Aubry — PrivacyIt’s January 28th which means it’s Data Privacy Day!
Today is an important day for the Matomo team as we reflect on our mission and our goals for 2020. This year I wanted to send a video message to all Matomo users, community members and customers.
Check it out (full transcript below)
A video message from Matomo founder, Matthieu Aubry
Privacy-friendly alternatives
- NoMoreGoogle:
a comprehensive list giving you options for other privacy-friendly alternatives. - Switching.Software:
Ethical alternatives to popular sites and apps. - Web browser:
Firefox
Brave
Vivaldi - Search engine:
DuckDuckGo
Qwant - File sharing:
Nextcloud - Email provider:
ProtonMail
Mailfence
Tutanota
Video transcript
Hey everyone,
Matthieu here, Founder of Matomo.
Today is one of the most significant days of the year for the Matomo team – it’s Data Privacy Day. And so I wanted to quickly reflect on our mission and the significance of this day.
In today’s busy online world where data is king, this day is an important reminder of being vigilant in protecting our personal information online.
Matomo began 12 years ago as an open-source alternative to Google Analytics – the goal was, and still is to give full control of data back to users.
In 2020, we are determined to see through this commitment. We will keep building a powerful and ethical web analytics platform that focuses on privacy protection, data ownership, and provides value to all Matomo users and customers.
And what’s fantastic is to see the rise of other quality software companies offering privacy-friendly alternatives for web browsers, search engines, file sharing, email providers, all with a similar mission. And with these products now widely available, we encourage you to take back control of all your online activities and begin this new decade with a resolution to stay safe online.
I’ll provide you with some links below the video to check out these privacy-friendly alternatives. If you have a website and want to gain valuable insights on the visitors while owning your data, join us!
Matomo Analytics On-Premise is and always will be free to download and install on your own servers and on your own terms.
Also feel free to join our active community or spread the word to your friends and network about the importance of data privacy.
Thank you all and wishing you a great 2020!
For more information on how Matomo protects the privacy of your users, visit: https://matomo.org/privacy/
Do you have privacy concerns?
What better day than today to speak up! What privacy concerns have you experienced?
- NoMoreGoogle:
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How to keep personally identifiable information safe
23 janvier 2020, par Joselyn KhorThe protection of personally identifiable information (PII) is important both for individuals, whose privacy may be compromised, and for businesses that may have their reputation ruined or be liable if PII is wrongly accessed, used, or shared.
Curious about what PII is? Here’s your introduction to personally identifiable information.
Due to hacking, data leaks or data thievery, PII acquired can be combined with other pieces of information to form a more complete picture of you. On an individual level, this puts you at risk of identity theft, credit card theft or other harm caused by the fraudulent use of your personal information.
On a business level, for companies who breach data privacy laws – like Cambridge Analytica’s harvesting of millions of FB profiles – the action leads to an erosion of trust. It can also impact your financial position as heavy fines can be imposed for the illegal use and processing of personally identifiable information.
So what can you do to ensure PII compliance?
On an individual level:
- Don’t give your data away so easily. Although long, it’s worthwhile to read through privacy policies to make sure you know what you’re getting yourself into.
- Don’t just click ‘agree’ when faced with consent screens, as consent screens are majorly flawed. Users mostly always opt in without reading and without being properly informed what they opt in to.
- Did you know you’re most likely being tracked from website to website? For example, Google can identify you across visits and websites. One of the things you can do is to disable third party cookies by default. Businesses can also use privacy friendly analytics which halt such tracking.
- Use strong passwords.
- Be wary of public wifi – hackers can easily access your PII or sensitive data. Use a VPN (virtual private network), which lets you create a secure connection to a server of your choosing. This allows you to browse the internet in a safe manner.
A PII compliance checklist for businesses/organisations:
- Identify where all PII exists and is stored – review and make sure this is in a safe environment.
- Identify laws that apply to you (GDPR, California privacy law, HIPAA) and follow your legal obligations.
- Create operational safeguards – policies and procedures for handling PII at an organisation level; and building awareness to focus on the protection of PII.
- Encrypt databases and repositories where such info is kept.
- Create privacy-specific safeguards in the way your organisation collects, maintains, uses, and disseminates data so you protect the confidentiality of the data.
- Minimise the use, collection, and retention of PII – only collect and keep PII if it’s necessary for you to perform your legal business function.
- Conduct privacy impact assessments (PIA) to find and prevent privacy risks (identify what and why it’s to be collected; how the information will be secured etc.).
- De-identify within the scope of your data collection and analytics tools.
- Anonymise data.
- Keep your privacy policy updated.
- Pseudonymisation.
- A more comprehensive guide for businesses can be found here: https://iapp.org/media/pdf/knowledge_center/NIST_Protecting_PII.pdf
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Your introduction to personally identifiable information : What is PII ?
When it comes to personally identifiable information (PII), people are becoming more concerned with data privacy. Identifiable information can be used for illegal purposes like identity theft and fraud.
So how can you protect yourself as an innocent web browser?
If you’re a website owner – 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 how you can 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 mainly used 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?
Who is affected by the exploitation of PII?
Anyone can be affected by the misuse of personal data. Websites can compromise your privacy by mishandling or illegally selling/sharing your data. That may lead identity theft, account fraud and account takeovers. 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; and anyone working at Facebook can 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)
If you’re using a web analytics tool like Google Analytics or Matomo, best practise is to not collect PII if possible. This is to better respect your website visitor’s privacy.
If you work in an industry which needs people to share personal information (e.g. healthcare, security industries, public sector), then you must collect and handle this data 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.
With 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.
PII, GDPR and businesses in the US/EU
You may get confused when considering PII and GDPR (which applies in the EU). The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) gives people in the EU more rights over “personal data” – which covers more identifiers than PII (more on PII vs personal data below). GDPR restricts the collection and processing of personal data so businesses need to handle this personal data carefully.
According to the GDPR, you can be fined up to 4% of their yearly revenue for data/privacy breaches or non-compliance.
In the US, there isn’t one overarching data protection law, but there are hundreds of laws on both the federal and state levels to protect PII of US residents. US Congress has enacted industry-specific statutes related to data privacy like HIPAA. Recently state of California also passed the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
To be on the safe side, if you’re using analytics, follow matters relating to “personal data” in the GDPR. It covers more 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” covers more identifiers, including online identifiers. Examples include: IP addresses and URL names. As well as seemingly “innocent” data like height, job position, company etc.
What’s seen as 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. So best to be compliant according to GDPR definitions of “personal data” not just what’s considered “PII”.
How do you keep PII safe?
- Try not to give your data away so easily. Read through terms and conditions.
- Don’t just click ‘agree’ when faced with consent screens, as consent screens are majorly flawed.
- Disable third party cookies by default.
- Use strong passwords.
- Be wary of public wifi – hackers can easily access your PII or sensitive data. Use a VPN (virtual private network)
- Read more on how to keep PII safe. For businesses here’s a checklist on PII compliance.
How Matomo deals with PII and personal data
Although Matomo Analytics is a web analytics tool 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/
