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• How to keep personally identifiable information safe

  23 janvier 2020, par Joselyn Khor
  The 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 :

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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. 
  4. Use strong passwords.
  5. 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 :

  1. Identify where all PII exists and is stored – review and make sure this is in a safe environment.
  2. Identify laws that apply to you (GDPR, California privacy law, HIPAA) and follow your legal obligations.
  3. Create operational safeguards – policies and procedures for handling PII at an organisation level ; and building awareness to focus on the protection of PII.
  4. Encrypt databases and repositories where such info is kept.
  5. Create privacy-specific safeguards in the way your organisation collects, maintains, uses, and disseminates data so you protect the confidentiality of the data.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.).
  8. De-identify within the scope of your data collection and analytics tools.
  9. Anonymise data.
  10. Keep your privacy policy updated.
  11. Pseudonymisation.
  12. A more comprehensive guide for businesses can be found here : https://iapp.org/media/pdf/knowledge_center/NIST_Protecting_PII.pdf

  Unsure of what information could be considered PII ? Check out this list of examples.

  Additional resources :

  • https://www.umassmed.edu/it/security/compliance/what-is-pii/
  • http://www.osec.doc.gov/opog/privacy/PII_BII.html

• Matomo vs WP-Statistics – which web analytics plugin suits you best ?

  2 avril 2020, par Joselyn Khor — Analytics Tips, Plugins

  Due to the endless choices, you may be wondering which web analytics plugin (GA, Slimstat or WP-Statistics) to choose from on the WordPress directory. If the choice is between WP-Statistics and Matomo for WordPress, we’ve got you covered. Have a look at which could be the best option for you. Our team tested the WP-Statistics plugin to see how it compares. It’s hard not to be biased, but we’ll try our best to give you a fair assessment.

  The main considerations in this article : 

  • General overview
  • General comparison
  • Similarities
  • Differences
  • Three notable feature category comparisons
  • Which tool suits you better ?

  General overview

  What’s Matomo Analytics for WordPress ?

  Matomo for WordPress is a free, privacy-friendly web analytics plugin that lets you understand website visitors and how they behave on your site. With comprehensive insights, you get the opportunity to increase conversions, and the know-how to improve your website. 

  It lets you undertake essential analysis by tracking information, such as, where visitors are coming from, what your most popular pages are, and how visitors are using your site.

  In addition to the fundamentals, the tool also allows for advanced tracking and analysis with features that give you a full understanding of behavioural patterns and website performance. This enables you to optimise your WordPress website to increase sales or engagement.

  It offers a complete analytics package with the bonuses of 100% data ownership, no data sampling, and GDPR compliance. 

  What’s WP-Statistics ?

  WP-Statistics is currently the most used self-hosted WordPress statistics plugin. It provides reports that let you analyse who your visitors are, where they’re coming from, and to an extent what they’re doing on your website.

  Like Matomo for WordPress, it gives you an understanding of your audience which helps you make decisions on how to improve your website for more conversions. 

  As it’s self-hosted on your own WordPress servers it can be seen as a privacy-friendly choice with a few tweaks (more on this below).

  Like Matomo for WordPress, it gives you an understanding of your audience which helps you make decisions on how to improve your website for more conversions. 

  General comparison

  Let’s compare the installation process and the dashboards that get installed in your WordPress.

  Installation

  Both Matomo and WP-Statistics are installed directly in your WordPress so you’ll be able to see your analytics reports right in your WordPress dashboard. You can install them both straight from the WordPress Directory.

  The installation process for both plugins is beginner-friendly. You simply need to find them on the WordPress directory, click on ‘Install Now’, and tracking should start immediately in your WordPress dashboard.

  Dashboard

  For the main Matomo platform you’ll see :

  • Visitors – Overview, Visits Log, Real-time, Real-time Map, Locations, Devices, Software, Times, User IDs, Custom Variables, User Type
  • Behaviour – Pages, Entry Pages, Exit Pages, Page titles, Site Search, Outlinks, Downloads, Events, Contents, Engagement, Transitions, Users Flow, Top Paths, Page Author, Page Location, Page Type, Crawling errors
  • Acquisition – Overview, All Channels, Search Engine & Keywords, Websites, Social Networks, Campaigns, Campaign URL Builder, Crawling overview
  • Ecommerce – Overview, Ecommerce Log, Products, Sales, Multi Attribution
  • Goals – Overview, Multi Attribution, Choose Goals, Manage Goals
  • These may be worded differently from WP-Statistics, but they show you all the information you need to know about your traffic, pages, etc.

  Previous

  Next

  In the dashboard for WP-Statistics you’ll see :

  • Overview, Hits, Online, Referrers, Search Words, Search Engines, Pages, Visitors, Categories, Tags, Authors, Browsers, Top Visitors Today
  • These are the only things you can see in the dashboard. So you can’t click into them for a drop down section to get deeper insights. 
  •  

  

  Key similarities between Matomo and WP-Statistics

  • Free to use
  • Self-hosted – All data collected is stored only within your own servers, no third parties have rights over your data, and logs or report data will never be sent to other servers. 
  • Beginner-friendly – Both offer simple reporting for people who are very much beginners and only want basic insights. With Matomo the advantage is also that you can get more details should you ever want/need to.

  Key differences between Matomo and WP-Statistics

  The main differences fall in these categories : features, privacy, documentation/support, security, active development, extensibility, price and ads.

  Features : 

  WP-Statistics – On a fundamental level, WP-Statistics is focused on simplicity and the basics. There are fewer reports than Matomo and they function on a level that suits beginners who are interested in seeing only the numbers of visitors on the website, and how often each page is viewed. 

  Matomo – provides an interface with similar simplicity. However, there is also a more feature-rich and more comprehensive user interface available. In addition to the basics, Matomo offers features like Goals, Ecommerce, in the free version which show a deeper level of insight. WP Statistics does not let you track essentials like Goals or Ecommerce.

  Privacy : 

  WP-Statistics – One of the concerns we wish to raise here is for data privacy. There doesn’t appear to be an opt-out option in WP-Statistics, which could be problematic for some privacy laws such as GDPR. There’s also no documentation on this.

  We were a bit concerned to see that WP-Statistics didn’t have IP anonymization enabled by default. Considering the IP address is personal data, it means you are not compliant with privacy laws such as the GDPR when you use this plugin unless you tweak the settings. They mentioned : “In previous versions, there was an option called Hash IP. When Hash IP was activated, the IP addresses wouldn’t be stored in the database, but instead, a unique hash would be used. In this new version, an option has been added to store IPs anonymously. This option is active by default.” However, when we installed this and tested it on multiple WordPress installations, this option was not active by default. 

  Matomo – has more measures in place to ensure privacy is respected, such as, opt-outs. Due to the stringent privacy features in place, Matomo is well equipped to ensure GDPR compliance. Matomo has an abundance of user guides and FAQs you can follow to configure your platform to fully comply with GDPR. There’s even an 12-step compliant checklist. The most compelling proof is that the leading voice on GDPR – The European Commission uses Matomo Analytics. 

  Documentation/Support : 

  WP-Statistics – has little documentation, FAQs, and no support.

  Matomo – has thousands of FAQs and user guides, as well as a dedicated support team and forum you can turn to for help. Should you ever run into any issue, this might be something important to consider.

  The contrast in support between WP-Statistics and Matomo for WordPress :

  

  

  Security :

  Matomo takes protecting your data very seriously. We have a security bounty programme giving security researchers money should they find any security issues. Matomo also performs a security review for every new release. We couldn’t find anything similar in WP-Statistics.

  Active development : 

  WP Statistics – doesn’t seem to have active development. The last change in this plugin was over three months ago (source : https://github.com/wp-statistics/wp-statistics/commits/master) and in general, only 10 people really contributed to it (source : https://github.com/wp-statistics/wp-statistics/graphs/contributors, the graphs shows little contributor activity.) 

  Matomo – has been built by hundreds of contributors (source : https://github.com/matomo-org/matomo/graphs/contributors), and is actively maintained by multiple developers including developers who work on this full time. This means you can rest assured that Matomo will be there for you in the future, it will receive regular improvements.

  Extensibility :

  WP-Statistics – have a section on their website offering customisation but for a price. 

  Matomo – should you want any changes and have some developer knowledge or some developers at hand, you can completely customise and extend Matomo for free. There are also one hundred additional plugins available for Matomo for free. 
  

  Price :

  The main WordPress plugins ‘WP Statistics‘ and ‘Matomo Analytics – Ethical Stats. Powerful Insights.‘ are both free.

  WP Statistics and Matomo also sell paid add-ons. However, WP-Statistics’ paid add-ons are ones already integrated in Matomo for free. These basic features are provided as the development team believe they’re necessities to a fully functional analytics platform. 

  Ads :

  WP Statistics shows you ads, whereas Matomo doesn’t.

  Three most notable feature category comparisons

  Both Matomo and WP-Statistics have basic tracking categories in the WP dashboard. In addition, Matomo has feature categories that can be expanded e.g. when clicked, Visitors drops down to reveal 11 more features. 

  We’ll compare three feature categories : Visitors, Behaviour, and Acquisitions.

  1. Visitors (WP-Statistics) vs Visitors (Matomo)

  Let’s dive into how each analytics platform provides insight into the visitors feature category.

  WP-Statistics

  

  WP-Statistics – We can see WP-Statistics gives you bare bones tracking capabilities so you don’t get a really detailed picture of your visitors. It allows you to monitor users currently online in real-time, which is useful to look at the most recent activity on your site. WP-Statistics doesn’t offer a dropdown section to see more about your visitor’s behavioural patterns. There is no Visitors category in WP-Statistics, just individual features in the dashboard but we can group three options together to compare with Matomo’s Visitors category, these are : Online, Browsers, Top Visitors Today.

  Matomo

  

  

  Comparison

  Matomo – In comparison, Matomo has a Visitors category with a dropdown list that lets you drill deeper into what your visitors are doing. It lets you evaluate every action an individual user has taken on your website which is compiled into a full historical profile. Matomo gives an in-depth view. E.g. you can look at individual visit logs, locations, and devices.

  This lets you see what the life-time journey of an active user looks like, or perhaps you want to see what a profile looks like for a user who comes back time-and-time again without ever purchasing ; there is no better way to gain insights to these journeys and this is why the Visitor Profiles feature is so widely used by Matomo users.

  2. Pages tracking (WP-Statistics) vs Behaviour (Matomo)

  For this comparison, WP-Statistics has a few features that can be combined to compare with Matomo’s Behaviour category. 

  WP-Statistics

  

  The Pages section in WP-Statistics gives a basic look at your most popular pages so you know which pages get more visits and those which aren’t performing. This helps with content improvement. You can also see other features in this Behaviour category like Browsers and Hits – these also provide basic stats to help you get a general sense of visitor behaviour. 

  Matomo

  

  Comparison :

  Matomo on the other hand has stats that go into greater detail. The features under the Behaviour section of the tool let you draw actionable conclusions e.g. seeing that a page has a higher exit rate than it’s supposed to, so you optimise that page to prevent people leaving and help them progress through your website. 

  Not only can you see popular pages, you can look at : which page people viewed first when they visited your website ; which page they left from ; what people search for on your site ; and see how people are flowing through pages. Most importantly you can see how each of these reports perform over time so you can improve engagement and conversions on your website.

  3. Referrers (WP-Statistics) vs Acquisition (Matomo)

  For this comparison, WP-Statistics has a few features that can be combined to compare with Matomo’s Acquisition category. 

  WP-Statistics

  

  WP-Statistics gives you Referrers, Search Words, and Search Engines. Which give a basic understanding of the channels that work best for you. This is helpful to know where to focus more of your attention.

  Matomo

  

  Comparison :

  With Matomo you see multiple layers of stats to understand how your acquisition channels are performing. So you can see tables of data that drill into visits, downloads, bounce rate, and newsletter sign ups. For example seeing that Facebook is the channel bringing in the most visitors to your site. This gives you a better sense of which acquisition strategy is working for your site. 

  Who suits WP-Statistics

  This is a great starter pack for people who want a lightweight, functional statistics plugin that gives you a basic overview of website hits and visitors. It’s very easy to use, so it’s great for beginners and those who want simple tracking. If you have basic goals for your website or blog’s success then WP-Statistics is enough for you to get numbers on visitors, page views, and hits, but won’t be suitable for a larger-scale business or organisation. 

  It’s suited for hobby websites, blogs, and freelancers who want simple, effective stats tracking, who don’t need detailed insights on site performance or tracking. 

  Who suits Matomo

  Matomo can be used for the same basic reporting, but has the capability for you to go deeper into more advanced reporting in a different UI if you need it. It’s an option that can work for a wider range of users – from beginners to analysts. There are features to suit all skill levels. This complete suite of features makes it a more comprehensive tool, as you can get more out of it. Ideal not only for bloggers and beginners, but also powerful enough to suit businesses, privacy-respecting organisations, and those who would benefit from conversion optimisation features. 

  You can draw insights from all stages of the customer journey – you’ll track behavioural patterns as soon as visitors enter your site, to their progression through your site, and ultimately to conversion and exit. It’s also an ethical choice because you get 100% data ownership. 

  If you’d like to look deeper into your data then Matomo would also be suitable for you. Matomo’s UI is lean, very easy to learn and shouldn’t overwhelm users in the way another tool like Google Analytics might do. If you think Matomo suits you best, you can install it for free now.

  Advantages of using Matomo

  Truly privacy-respecting

  There’s no messing about when it comes to privacy. As a lot of users are based in Europe, Matomo adheres to the strictest privacy laws and can be counted on as a privacy-respecting tool that’s used by many government entities. Needing to comply with major privacy laws (GDPR) in Europe means Matomo can proudly ensure users are making the ethical choice.

  GDPR compliance

  You mitigate the risks of getting caught out and fined for breaching GDPR regulations. There’s a complete list of documentation, guides, information, and tools to make sure you’re on the right side of GDPR. 

  All-rounder

  Matomo gives you a clearer picture of your visitors which helps you make better decisions for your website overall. The support and documentation is thorough which means you get more out of your Matomo experience.

  Conclusion

  Both tools will do you justice in terms of fundamental reporting, but Matomo Analytics will outshine if you want a greater understanding of your website and want to carry out deeper levels of analysis.

  You can draw useful insights with WP-Statistics so it has to be said that they are doing something right with an entry-level offering. The simplicity is great, but you won’t really get more than a basic idea of how your site is performing.

  On the flipside, this simplicity could also be a double-edged sword for WP-Statistics in that it’s too simplistic to draw actionable insights. If you’re wanting to know anything that could increase sales, conversions or subscribers – then you wouldn’t really get the reports to do so. 

  WP-Statistics also falls short when it comes to updates and support. So a major difference can be seen in support, active development, ads, security, documentation, which many people may think about until they’re in trouble and find they need these resources. Matomo offers support, continuous product development, and extensive documentation. There are also no ads, making it more enjoyable to use.

  One thing we’d like to raise awareness about is WP-Statistics’ claims of being privacy-respecting without much documentation to back up those claims. There is a lack of privacy features which could put some website owners at risk of non-compliance. Just be sure to check that you’ve carried out the steps to comply with the privacy laws in your country.

  Matomo makes it clear that privacy is essential as is compliance to privacy laws like GDPR. The strength also lies in the peace of mind you get from a tool that’s used by global privacy leaders such as the European Commission. 

• CJEU rules US cloud servers don’t comply with GDPR and what this means for web analytics

  17 juillet 2020, par Jake Thornton
  Breaking news : On July 16, 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled that any cloud services hosted in the US are incapable of complying with the GDPR and EU privacy laws.

  In August 2016, the EU-US Privacy Shield framework came into effect, which “protects the fundamental rights of anyone in the EU whose personal data is transferred to the United States for commercial purposes. It allows the free transfer of data to companies that are certified in the US under the Privacy Shield.” – European Commission website

  However after today’s CJEU ruling, this Privacy Shield framework became invalidated due to significant differences between EU and US privacy laws.

  European privacy law activist Max Schrems summarises with “The Court clarified for a second time now that there is a clash between EU privacy law and US surveillance law. As the EU will not change its fundamental rights to please the NSA, the only way to overcome this clash is for the US to introduce solid privacy rights for all people – including foreigners. Surveillance reform thereby becomes crucial for the business interests of Silicon Valley.” – noyb website

  Today’s ruling also continues to spark concern into the legitimacy of US privacy laws which doesn’t fully protect people’s personal data when hosted on cloud servers based in the US.

  

  How will this affect you ?

  For any business operating a website in the EU or if you have traffic coming to your website from EU visitors, you need to know what data you’re capturing and where this data is being stored.

  Here’s what Maja Smoltczyk (Berlin’s Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information) says :

  Controllers who transfer personal data to the USA, especially when using cloud-based services, are now required to switch immediately to service providers based in the European Union or a country that can
  ensure an adequate level of data protection. The CJEU has made it refreshingly clear that data exports are not just financial decisions, as people’s fundamental rights must also be considered as a matter of priority. This ruling will put
  an end to the transfer of personal data to the USA for the sake of convenience or to cut costs.

  The controller is you (not Google) and by transferring data to the US you are at risk of being fined up to €20 million or 4% of your annual worldwide turnover for not being GDPR compliant. 

  It’s you who has to take action, not Google or other US companies. The court’s decision has immediate effect. While we assume there will be a grace period, companies should act now as finding and implementing alternatives solution can take a while. 

  Can no data be exported outside the EU anymore ?

  Data can still be exported outside the EU if an adequate level of data protection is guaranteed. This is the case for some trading partners of the EU such as New Zealand, Japan, Switzerland, and Canada. They have been certified by the EU as having a comparable level of privacy protection and therefore demonstrate adequacy at a country level.

  Necessary data can still flow to countries like the US too. This is for example the case when someone books a hotel in the US or when sending an email to someone in the US. Backups for disaster recovery and most other reasons don’t qualify as necessary.

  In all other cases you can still send data to countries like the US if you get explicit and informed consent from a user. Meaning the user has been informed about all possible risks of sending the data to the US and who can access the data (for example the US government).

  How this affects Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager users

  If your website is using Google Analytics, the safest bet is to deactivate it immediately. Otherwise, you must ask for consent from everyone who visits your website and inform them that the data will be processed in the United States under less strict privacy laws and all associated risks. If you don’t, you could be liable to privacy law infringements and face being fined for not complying with the GDPR. This also applies to Google Tag Manager as it transfers the IP address to the US which is considered personal data under the GDPR.

  Consent needs to be :

  • Freely given (the user must have a choice to not give consent and be able to opt out at any time) 
  • Informed (you need to disclose who is processing the data, what data is processed, where the data will be stored and how to opt out) 
  • Specific (consent is only valid for the specific informed purpose) 
  • Unambiguous (for example pre-ticked boxes or similar aren’t allowed)

  

  If users don’t give you consent, you are not allowed to track them using Google Analytics or any other US based cloud solution.

  Update August 19, 2020

  A month after this ruling, over 100 complaints have been filed against websites for continuing to send data to the US via Google Analytics or Facebook, by the European privacy campaign group noyb. It’s clear Google and Facebook fall under US surveillance laws such as FISA 702 and the court clearly ruled these companies cannot rely on SCCs to transfer data to the US. Anyone still using Google Analytics is now at risk of facing fines and compensation damages. 

  How this affects Matomo users

  Our cloud servers are based in Germany.

  Matomo On-Premise users choose the location of their data themselves. If the servers are located in the EU nothing changes. If the servers are located outside the EU and the website targets EU users and tracks personal data, then you need to assess whether you are required to ask for tracking consent.

  If the data is stored inside the EU you can use Matomo without asking for any consent and you can continue tracking users even if they reject a consent screen which greatly increases the quality of your data.

  Want to avoid informing users about transferring their data to the US and all associated risks ?

  Try Matomo now for free ! No credit card required.

  Download Matomo