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• How to Stream RTP (IP camera) Into React App setup

  10 novembre 2024, par sharon2469

  I am trying to transfer a live broadcast from an IP camera or any other broadcast coming from an RTP/RTSP source to my REACT application. BUT MUST BE LIVE

  


  My setup at the moment is :

  


  IP Camera -> (RTP) -> FFmpeg -> (udp) -> Server(nodeJs) -> (WebRTC) -> React app

  


  In the current situation, There is almost no delay, but there are some things here that I can't avoid and I can't understand why, and here is my question :

  


  1) First, is the SETUP even correct and this is the only way to Stream RTP video in Web app ?

  


  2) Is it possible to avoid re-encode the stream , RTP transmission necessarily comes in H.264, hence I don't really need to execute the following command :

  


      return spawn('ffmpeg', [
    '-re',                              // Read input at its native frame rate Important for live-streaming
    '-probesize', '32',                 // Set probing size to 32 bytes (32 is minimum)
    '-analyzeduration', '1000000',      // An input duration of 1 second
    '-c:v', 'h264',                     // Video codec of input video
    '-i', 'rtp://238.0.0.2:48888',      // Input stream URL
    '-map', '0:v?',                     // Select video from input stream
    '-c:v', 'libx264',                  // Video codec of output stream
    '-preset', 'ultrafast',             // Faster encoding for lower latency
    '-tune', 'zerolatency',             // Optimize for zero latency
    // '-s', '768x480',                    // Adjust the resolution (experiment with values)
    '-f', 'rtp', `rtp://127.0.0.1:${udpPort}` // Output stream URL
]);


  


  As you can se in this command I re-encode to libx264, But if I set FFMPEG a parameter '-c:v' :'copy' instead of '-c:v', 'libx264' then FFMPEG throw an error says : that it doesn't know how to encode h264 and only knows what is libx264-> Basically, I want to stop the re-encode because there is really no need for it, because the stream is already encoded to H264. Are there certain recommendations that can be made ?

  


  3) I thought about giving up the FFMPEG completely, but the RTP packets arrive at a size of 1200+ BYTES when WEBRTC is limited to up to 1280 BYTE. Is there a way to manage these sabotages without damaging the video and is it to enter this world ? I guess there is the whole story with the JITTER BUFFER here

  


  This is my server side code (THIS IS JUST A TEST CODE)

  


  import {
    MediaStreamTrack,
    randomPort,
    RTCPeerConnection,
    RTCRtpCodecParameters,
    RtpPacket,
} from 'werift'
import {Server} from "ws";
import {createSocket} from "dgram";
import {spawn} from "child_process";
import LoggerFactory from "./logger/loggerFactory";

//

const log = LoggerFactory.getLogger('ServerMedia')

// Websocket server -> WebRTC
const serverPort = 8888
const server = new Server({port: serverPort});
log.info(`Server Media start om port: ${serverPort}`);

// UDP server -> ffmpeg
const udpPort = 48888
const udp = createSocket("udp4");
// udp.bind(udpPort, () => {
//     udp.addMembership("238.0.0.2");
// })
udp.bind(udpPort)
log.info(`UDP port: ${udpPort}`)


const createFFmpegProcess = () => {
    log.info(`Start ffmpeg process`)
    return spawn('ffmpeg', [
        '-re',                              // Read input at its native frame rate Important for live-streaming
        '-probesize', '32',                 // Set probing size to 32 bytes (32 is minimum)
        '-analyzeduration', '1000000',      // An input duration of 1 second
        '-c:v', 'h264',                     // Video codec of input video
        '-i', 'rtp://238.0.0.2:48888',      // Input stream URL
        '-map', '0:v?',                     // Select video from input stream
        '-c:v', 'libx264',                  // Video codec of output stream
        '-preset', 'ultrafast',             // Faster encoding for lower latency
        '-tune', 'zerolatency',             // Optimize for zero latency
        // '-s', '768x480',                    // Adjust the resolution (experiment with values)
        '-f', 'rtp', `rtp://127.0.0.1:${udpPort}` // Output stream URL
    ]);

}

let ffmpegProcess = createFFmpegProcess();


const attachFFmpegListeners = () => {
    // Capture standard output and print it
    ffmpegProcess.stdout.on('data', (data) => {
        log.info(`FFMPEG process stdout: ${data}`);
    });

    // Capture standard error and print it
    ffmpegProcess.stderr.on('data', (data) => {
        console.error(`ffmpeg stderr: ${data}`);
    });

    // Listen for the exit event
    ffmpegProcess.on('exit', (code, signal) => {
        if (code !== null) {
            log.info(`ffmpeg process exited with code ${code}`);
        } else if (signal !== null) {
            log.info(`ffmpeg process killed with signal ${signal}`);
        }
    });
};


attachFFmpegListeners();


server.on("connection", async (socket) => {
    const payloadType = 96; // It is a numerical value that is assigned to each codec in the SDP offer/answer exchange -> for H264
    // Create a peer connection with the codec parameters set in advance.
    const pc = new RTCPeerConnection({
        codecs: {
            audio: [],
            video: [
                new RTCRtpCodecParameters({
                    mimeType: "video/H264",
                    clockRate: 90000, // 90000 is the default value for H264
                    payloadType: payloadType,
                }),
            ],
        },
    });

    const track = new MediaStreamTrack({kind: "video"});


    udp.on("message", (data) => {
        console.log(data)
        const rtp = RtpPacket.deSerialize(data);
        rtp.header.payloadType = payloadType;
        track.writeRtp(rtp);
    });

    udp.on("error", (err) => {
        console.log(err)

    });

    udp.on("close", () => {
        console.log("close")
    });

    pc.addTransceiver(track, {direction: "sendonly"});

    await pc.setLocalDescription(await pc.createOffer());
    const sdp = JSON.stringify(pc.localDescription);
    socket.send(sdp);

    socket.on("message", (data: any) => {
        if (data.toString() === 'resetFFMPEG') {
            ffmpegProcess.kill('SIGINT');
            log.info(`FFMPEG process killed`)
            setTimeout(() => {
                ffmpegProcess = createFFmpegProcess();
                attachFFmpegListeners();
            }, 5000)
        } else {
            pc.setRemoteDescription(JSON.parse(data));
        }
    });
});


  


  And this fronted :

  


  &#xA;&#xA;&#xA;    &#xA;    &#xA;    <code class="echappe-js">&lt;script&amp;#xA;            crossorigin&amp;#xA;            src=&quot;https://unpkg.com/react@16/umd/react.development.js&quot;&amp;#xA;    &gt;&lt;/script&gt;&#xA;    &lt;script&amp;#xA;            crossorigin&amp;#xA;            src=&quot;https://unpkg.com/react-dom@16/umd/react-dom.development.js&quot;&amp;#xA;    &gt;&lt;/script&gt;&#xA;    &lt;script&amp;#xA;            crossorigin&amp;#xA;            src=&quot;https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/babel-core/5.8.34/browser.min.js&quot;&amp;#xA;    &gt;&lt;/script&gt;&#xA;    &lt;script src=&quot;https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/babel-regenerator-runtime@6.5.0/runtime.min.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;
  &#xA;    
  
  &#xA;
  
  &#xA;&lt;script type=&quot;text/babel&quot;&gt;&amp;#xA;    let rtc;&amp;#xA;&amp;#xA;    const App = () =&gt; {&amp;#xA;        const [log, setLog] = React.useState([]);&amp;#xA;        const videoRef = React.useRef();&amp;#xA;        const socket = new WebSocket(&quot;ws://localhost:8888&quot;);&amp;#xA;        const [peer, setPeer] = React.useState(null); // Add state to keep track of the peer connection&amp;#xA;&amp;#xA;        React.useEffect(() =&gt; {&amp;#xA;            (async () =&gt; {&amp;#xA;                await new Promise((r) =&gt; (socket.onopen = r));&amp;#xA;                console.log(&quot;open websocket&quot;);&amp;#xA;&amp;#xA;                const handleOffer = async (offer) =&gt; {&amp;#xA;                    console.log(&quot;new offer&quot;, offer.sdp);&amp;#xA;&amp;#xA;                    const updatedPeer = new RTCPeerConnection({&amp;#xA;                        iceServers: [],&amp;#xA;                        sdpSemantics: &quot;unified-plan&quot;,&amp;#xA;                    });&amp;#xA;&amp;#xA;                    updatedPeer.onicecandidate = ({ candidate }) =&gt; {&amp;#xA;                        if (!candidate) {&amp;#xA;                            const sdp = JSON.stringify(updatedPeer.localDescription);&amp;#xA;                            console.log(sdp);&amp;#xA;                            socket.send(sdp);&amp;#xA;                        }&amp;#xA;                    };&amp;#xA;&amp;#xA;                    updatedPeer.oniceconnectionstatechange = () =&gt; {&amp;#xA;                        console.log(&amp;#xA;                            &quot;oniceconnectionstatechange&quot;,&amp;#xA;                            updatedPeer.iceConnectionState&amp;#xA;                        );&amp;#xA;                    };&amp;#xA;&amp;#xA;                    updatedPeer.ontrack = (e) =&gt; {&amp;#xA;                        console.log(&quot;ontrack&quot;, e);&amp;#xA;                        videoRef.current.srcObject = e.streams[0];&amp;#xA;                    };&amp;#xA;&amp;#xA;                    await updatedPeer.setRemoteDescription(offer);&amp;#xA;                    const answer = await updatedPeer.createAnswer();&amp;#xA;                    await updatedPeer.setLocalDescription(answer);&amp;#xA;&amp;#xA;                    setPeer(updatedPeer);&amp;#xA;                };&amp;#xA;&amp;#xA;                socket.onmessage = (ev) =&gt; {&amp;#xA;                    const data = JSON.parse(ev.data);&amp;#xA;                    if (data.type === &quot;offer&quot;) {&amp;#xA;                        handleOffer(data);&amp;#xA;                    } else if (data.type === &quot;resetFFMPEG&quot;) {&amp;#xA;                        // Handle the resetFFMPEG message&amp;#xA;                        console.log(&quot;FFmpeg reset requested&quot;);&amp;#xA;                    }&amp;#xA;                };&amp;#xA;            })();&amp;#xA;        }, []); // Added socket as a dependency to the useEffect hook&amp;#xA;&amp;#xA;        const sendRequestToResetFFmpeg = () =&gt; {&amp;#xA;            socket.send(&quot;resetFFMPEG&quot;);&amp;#xA;        };&amp;#xA;&amp;#xA;        return (&amp;#xA;            &lt;div&gt;&amp;#xA;                Video: &amp;#xA;                &lt;video ref={videoRef} autoPlay muted /&gt;&amp;#xA;                &lt;button onClick={() =&gt; sendRequestToResetFFmpeg()}&gt;Reset FFMPEG&lt;/button&gt;&amp;#xA;            &lt;/div&gt;&amp;#xA;        );&amp;#xA;    };&amp;#xA;&amp;#xA;    ReactDOM.render(&lt;App /&gt;, document.getElementById(&quot;app1&quot;));&amp;#xA;&lt;/script&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;
  

  


• How to Use Analytics & Reports for Marketing, Sales & More

  28 septembre 2023, par Erin — Analytics Tips

  By now, most professionals know they should be using analytics and reports to make better business decisions. Blogs and thought leaders talk about it all the time. But most sources don’t tell you how to use analytics and reports. So marketers, salespeople and others either skim whatever reports they come across or give up on making data-driven decisions entirely. 

  But it doesn’t have to be this way.

  In this article, we’ll cover what analytics and reports are, how they differ and give you examples of each. Then, we’ll explain how clean data comes into play and how marketing, sales, and user experience teams can use reports and analytics to uncover actionable insights.

  What’s the difference between analytics & reports ? 

  Many people speak of reports and analytics as if the terms are interchangeable, but they have two distinct meanings.

  A report is a collection of data presented in one place. By tracking key metrics and providing numbers, reports tell you what is happening in your business. Analytics is the study of data and the process of generating insights from data. Both rely on data and are essential for understanding and improving your business results.

  

  A science experiment is a helpful analogy for how reporting and analytics work together. To conduct an experiment, scientists collect data and results and compile a report of what happened. But the process doesn’t stop there. After generating a data report, scientists analyse the data and try to understand the why behind the results.

  In a business context, you collect and organise data in reports. With analytics, you then use those reports and their data to draw conclusions about what works and what doesn’t.

  Reports examples 

  Reports are a valuable tool for just about any part of your business, from sales to finance to human resources. For example, your finance team might collect data about spending and use it to create a report. It might show how much you spend on employee compensation, real estate, raw materials and shipping.

  On the other hand, your marketing team might benefit from a report on lead sources. This would mean collecting data on where your sales leads come from (social media, email, organic search, etc.). You could collect and present lead source data over time for a more in-depth report. This shows which sources are becoming more effective over time. With advanced tools, you can create detailed, custom reports that include multiple factors, such as time, geographical location and device type.

  

  Analytics examples 

  Because analytics requires looking at and drawing insights from data and reports to collect and present data, analytics often begins by studying reports. 

  In our example of a report on lead sources, an analytics professional might study the report and notice that webinars are an important source of leads. To better understand this, they might look closely at the number of leads acquired compared to how often webinars occur. If they notice that the number of webinar leads has been growing, they might conclude that the business should invest in more webinars to generate more leads. This is just one kind of insight analytics can provide.

  For another example, your human resources team might study a report on employee retention. After analysing the data, they could discover valuable insights, such as which teams have the highest turnover rate. Further analysis might help them uncover why certain teams fail to keep employees and what they can do to solve the problem.

  The importance of clean data 

  Both analytics and reporting rely on data, so it’s essential your data is clean. Clean data means you’ve audited your data, removed inaccuracies and duplicate entries, and corrected mislabelled data or errors. Basically, you want to ensure that each piece of information you’re using for reports and analytics is accurate and organised correctly.

  If your data isn’t clean and accurate, neither will your reports be. And making business decisions based on bad data can come at a considerable cost. Inaccurate data might lead you to invest in a channel that appears more valuable than it actually is. Or it could cause you to overlook opportunities for growth. Moreover, poor data maintenance and the poor insight it provides will lead your team to have less trust in your reports and analytics team.

  The simplest way to maintain clean data is to be meticulous when inputting or transferring data. This can be as simple as ensuring that your sales team fills in every field of an account record. When you need to import or transfer data from other sources, you need to perform quality assurance (QA) checks to make sure data is appropriately labelled and organised. 

  Another way to maintain clean data is by avoiding cookies. Most web visitors reject cookie consent banners. When this happens, analysts and marketers don’t get data on these visitors and only see the percentage of users who accept tracking. This means they decide on a smaller sample size, leading to poor or inaccurate data. These banners also create a poor user experience and annoy web visitors.

  Matomo can be configured to run cookieless — which, in most countries, means you don’t need to have an annoying cookie consent screen on your site. This way, you can get more accurate data and create a better user experience.

  Marketing analytics and reports 

  Analytics and reporting help you measure and improve the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. They help you learn what’s working and what you should invest more time and money into. And bolstering the effectiveness of your marketing will create more opportunities for sales.

  

  One common area where marketing teams use analytics and reports is to understand and improve their keyword rankings and search engine optimization. They use web analytics platforms like Matomo to report on how their website performs for specific keywords. Insights from these reports are then used to inform changes to the website and the development of new content.

  As we mentioned above, marketing teams often use reports on lead sources to understand how their prospects and customers are learning about the brand. They might analyse their lead sources to better understand their audience. 

  For example, if your company finds that you receive a lot of leads from LinkedIn, you might decide to study the content you post there and how it differs from other platforms. You could apply a similar content approach to other channels to see if it increases lead generation. You can then study reporting on how lead source data changes after you change content strategies. This is one example of how analysing a report can lead to marketing experimentation. 

  Email and paid advertising are also marketing channels that can be optimised with reports and analysis. By studying the data around what emails and ads your audience clicks on, you can draw insights into what topics and messaging resonate with your customers.

  

  Marketing teams often use A/B testing to learn about audience preferences. In an A/B test, you can test two landing page versions, such as two different types of call-to-action (CTA) buttons. Matomo will generate a report showing how many people clicked each version. From those results, you may draw an insight into the design your audience prefers.

  Sales analytics and reports 

  Sales analytics and reports are used to help teams close more deals and sell more efficiently. They also help businesses understand their revenue, set goals, and optimise sales processes. And understanding your sales and revenue allows you to plan for the future.

  One of the keys to building a successful sales strategy and team is understanding your sales cycle. That’s why it’s so important for companies to analyse their lead and sales data. For business-to-business (B2B) companies in particular, the sales cycle can be a long process. But you can use reporting and analytics to learn about the stages of the buying cycle, including how long they take and how many leads proceed to the next step.

  Analysing lead and customer data also allows you to gain insights into who your customers are. With detailed account records, you can track where your customers are, what industries they come from, what their role is and how much they spend. While you can use reports to gather customer data, you also have to use analysis and qualitative information in order to build buyer personas. 

  

  Many sales teams use past individual and business performance to understand revenue trends. For instance, you might study historical data reports to learn how seasonality affects your revenue. If you dive deeper, you might find that seasonal trends may depend on the country where your customers live. 

  

  Conversely, it’s also important to analyse what internal variables are affecting revenue. You can use revenue reports to identify your top-performing sales associates. You can then try to expand and replicate that success. While sales is a field often driven by personal relationships and conversations, many types of reports allow you to learn about and improve the process.

  Website and user behaviour analytics and reports 

  More and more, businesses view their websites as an experience and user behaviour as an important part of their business. And just like sales and marketing, reporting and analytics help you better understand and optimise your web experience. 

  Many web and user behaviour metrics, like traffic source, have important implications for marketing. For example, page traffic and user flows can provide valuable insights into what your customers are interested in. This can then drive future content development and marketing campaigns.

  

  You can also learn about how your users navigate and use your website. A robust web analytics tool, like Matomo, can supply user session recordings and visitor tracking. For example, you could study which pages a particular user visits. But Matomo also has a feature called Transitions that provides visual reports showing where a particular page’s traffic comes from and where visitors tend to go afterward. 

  

  As you consider why people might be leaving your website, site performance is another important area for reporting. Most users are accustomed to near-instantaneous web experiences, so it’s worth monitoring your page load time and looking out for backend delays. In today’s world, your website experience is part of what you’re selling to customers. Don’t miss out on opportunities to impress and delight them.

  Dive into your data

  Reporting and analytics can seem like mysterious buzzwords we’re all supposed to understand already. But, like anything else, they require definitions and meaningful examples. When you dig into the topic, though, the applications for reporting and analytics are endless.

  Use these examples to identify how you can use analytics and reports in your role and department to achieve better results, whether that means higher quality leads, bigger deal size or a better user experience.

  To see how Matomo can collect accurate and reliable data and turn it into in-depth analytics and reports, start a free 21-day trial. No credit card required.

• Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA) Guide

  27 septembre 2023, par Erin — Privacy

  Do you run a for-profit organisation in the United States that processes personal and sensitive consumer data ? If so, you may be concerned about the growing number of data privacy laws cropping up from state to state.

  Ever since the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) came into effect on January 1, 2020, four other US states — Connecticut, Colorado, Utah and Virginia — have passed their own data privacy laws. Each law uses the CCPA as a foundation but slightly deviates from the formula. This is a problem for US organisations, as they cannot apply the same CCPA compliance framework everywhere else.

  In this article, you’ll learn what makes the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA) unique and how to ensure compliance.

  What is the VCDPA ?

  Signed by Governor Ralph Northam on 2 March 2021, and brought into effect on 1 January 2023, the VCDPA is a new data privacy law. It gives Virginia residents certain rights regarding how organisations process their personal and sensitive consumer data.

  

  The law contains several provisions, which define :

  • Who must follow the VCDPA
  • Who is exempt from the VCDPA
  • The consumer rights of data subjects
  • Relevant terms, such as “consumers,” “personal data,” “sensitive data” and the “sale of personal data”
  • The rights and responsibilities of data controllers
  • What applicable organisations must do to ensure VCDPA compliance

  These guidelines define the data collection practices that VCDPA-compliant organisations must comply with. The practices are designed to protect the rights of Virginia residents who have their personal or sensitive data collected.

  What are the consumer rights of VCDPA data subjects ?

  There are seven consumer rights that protect residents who fit the definition of “data subjects” under the new Virginia data privacy law. 

  

  A data subject is an “identified or identifiable natural person” who has their information collected. Personally identifiable information includes a person’s name, address, date of birth, religious beliefs, immigration status, status of child protection assessments, ethnic origin and more.

  Below is a detailed breakdown of each VCDPA consumer right :

  1. Right to know, access and confirm personal data : Data subjects have the right to know that their data is being collected, the right to access their data and the right to confirm that the data being collected is accurate and up to date.
  2. Right to delete personal data : Data subjects have the right to request that their collected personal or sensitive consumer data be deleted.
  3. Right to correct inaccurate personal data : Data subjects have the right to request that their collected data be corrected.
  4. Right to data portability : Data subjects have the right to obtain their collected data and, when reasonable and possible, request that their collected data be transferred from one data controller to another.
  5. Right to opt out of data processing activity : Data subjects have the right to opt out of having their personal or sensitive data collected.
  6. Right to opt out of the sale of personal and sensitive consumer data : Data subjects have the right to opt out of having their collected data sold to third parties.

  Right to not be discriminated against for exercising one’s rights : Data subjects have the right to not be discriminated against for exercising their right to not have their personal or sensitive consumer data collected, processed and sold to third parties for targeted advertising or other purposes.

  Who must comply with the VCDPA ?

  The VCDPA applies to for-profit organisations. Specifically, those that operate and offer products or services in the state of Virginia.

  

  Additionally, for-profit organisations that fit under either of these two categories must comply with the VCDPA :

  • Collect and process the personal data of at least 100,000 Virginia residents within a financial year or
  • Collect and process the personal data of at least 25,000 Virginia residents and receive at least 50% of gross revenue by selling personal or sensitive data.

  If a for-profit organisation resides out of the state of Virginia and falls into one of the categories above, they must comply with the VCDPA. Eligibility requirements also apply, regardless of the revenue threshold of the organisation in question. Large organisations can avoid VCDPA compliance if they don’t meet either of the above two eligibility requirements.

  What types of consumer data does the VCDPA protect ?

  The two main types of data that apply to the VCDPA are personal and sensitive data. 

  

  Personal data is either identified or personally identifiable information, such as home address, date of birth or phone number. Information that is publicly available or has been de-identified (dissociated with a natural person or entity) is not considered personal data.

  Sensitive data is a category of personal data. It’s data that’s either the collected data of a known child or data that can be used to form an opinion about a natural person or individual. Examples of sensitive data include information about a person’s ethnicity, religion, political beliefs and sexual orientation. 

  It’s important that VCDPA-compliant organisations understand the difference between the two data types, as failure to do so could result in penalties of up to $7,500 per violation. For instance, if an organisation wants to collect sensitive data (and they have a valid reason to do so), they must first ask for consent from consumers. If the organisation in question fails to do so, then they’ll be in violation of the VCDPA, and may be subject to multiple penalties — equal to however many violations they incur.

  A 5-step VCDPA compliance framework

  Getting up to speed with the terms of the VCDPA can be challenging, especially if this is your first time encountering such a law. That said, even organisations that have experience with data privacy laws should still take the time to understand the VCDPA.

  

  Here’s a simple 5-step VCDPA compliance framework to follow.

  1. Assess data

  First off, take the time to become familiar with the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA). Then, read the content from the ‘Who does the VCDPA apply to’ section of this article, and use this information to determine if the law applies to your organisation.

  How do you know if you reach the data subject threshold ? Easy. Use a web analytics platform like Matomo to see where your web visitors are, how many of them (from that specific region) are visiting your website and how many of them you’re collecting personal or sensitive data from.

  To do this in Matomo, simply open the dashboard, look at the “Locations” section and use the information on display to see how many Virginia residents are visiting your website.

  

  Using the dashboard will help you determine if the VCDPA applies to your company.

  2. Evaluate your privacy practices

  Review your existing privacy policies and practices and update them to comply with the VCDPA. Ensure your data collection practices protect the confidentiality, integrity and accessibility of your visitors.

  One way to do this is to automatically anonymise visitor IPs, which you can do in Matomo — in fact, the feature is automatically set to default. 

  

  Another great thing about IP anonymisation is that after a visitor leaves your website, any evidence of them ever visiting is gone, and such information cannot be tracked by anyone else. 

  3. Inform data subjects of their rights

  To ensure VCDPA compliance in your organisation, you must inform your data subjects of their rights, including their right to access their data, their right to transfer their data to another controller and their right to opt out of your data collection efforts.

  That last point is one of the most important, and to ensure that you’re ready to respond to consumer rights requests, you should prepare an opt-out form in advance. If a visitor wants to opt out from tracking, they’ll be able to do so quickly and easily. Not only will this help you be VCDPA compliant, but your visitors will also appreciate the fact that you take their privacy seriously.

  

  To create an opt-out form in Matomo, visit the privacy settings section (click on the cog icon in the top menu) and click on the “Users opt-out” menu item under the Privacy section. After creating the form, you can then customise and publish the form as a snippet of HTML code that you can place on the pages of your website.

  4. Review vendor contracts

  Depending on the nature of your organisation, you may have vendor contracts with a third-party business associate. These are individuals or organisations, separate from your own, that contribute to the successful delivery of your products and services.

  You may also engage with third parties that process the data you collect, as is the case for many website owners that use Google Analytics (to which there are many alternatives) to convert visitor data into insights. 

  Financial institutions, such as stock exchange companies, also rely on third-party data for trading. If this is the case for you, then you likely have a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) in place — a legally binding document between you (the data controller, who dictates how and why the collected data is used) and the data processor (who processes the data you provide to them).

  To ensure that your DPA is VCDPA compliant, make sure it contains the following items :

  • Definition of terms
  • Instructions for processing data
  • Limits of use (explain what all parties can and cannot do with the collected data)
  • Physical data security practices (e.g., potential risks, risk of harm and control measures)
  • Data subject rights
  • Consumer request policies (i.e., must respond within 45 days of receipt)
  • Privacy notices and policies

  5. Seek expert legal advice

  To ensure your organisation is fully VCDPA compliant, consider speaking to a data and privacy lawyer. They can help you better understand the specifics of the law, advise you on where you fall short of compliance and what you must do to become VCDPA compliant.

  Data privacy lawyers can also help you draft a meaningful privacy notice, which may be useful in modifying your existing DPAs or creating new ones. If needed, they can also advise you on areas of compliance with other state-specific data protection acts, such as the CCPA and newly released laws in Colorado, Connecticut and Utah.

  How does the VCDPA differ from the CCPA ?

  Although the VCDPA has many similarities to the CCPA, the two laws still have their own approach to applying the law. 

  Here’s a quick breakdown of the main differences that set these laws apart.

  Definition of a consumer

  Under the VCDPA, a consumer is a “natural person who is a Virginia resident acting in an individual or household context.” Meanwhile, under the CCPA, a consumer is a “natural person who is a California resident acting in an individual or household context.” However, the VCDPA omits people in employment contexts, while the CCPA doesn’t. Hence, organisations don’t need to consider employee data.

  Sale of personal data

  The VCDPA defines the “sale of personal data” as an exchange “for monetary consideration” by the data controller to a data processor or third party. This means that, under the VCDPA, an act is only considered a “sale of personal data” if there is monetary value attached to the transaction.

  This contrasts with the CCPA, where that law also counts “other valuable considerations” as a factor when determining if the sale of personal data has occurred.

  Right to opt out

  Just like the CCPA, the VCDPA clearly outlines that organisations must respond to a user request to opt out of tracking. However, unlike the CCPA, the VCDPA does not give organisations any exceptions to such a right. This means that, even if the organisation believes that the request is impractical or hard to pull off, it must comply with the request under any circumstances, even in instances of hardship.

  Ensure VCDPA compliance with Matomo

  The VCDPA, like many other data privacy laws in the US, is designed to enhance the rights of Virginia consumers who have their personal or sensitive data collected and processed. Fortunately, this is where platforms like Matomo can help.

  Matomo is a powerful web analytics platform that has built-in features to help you comply with the VCDPA. These include options like :

  • Cookie-less tracking
  • Creating consumer consent and opt-out forms
  • Giving consumers access to their personal data

  Try out the free 21-day Matomo trial today. No credit card required.