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• A Guide to Ethical Web Analytics in 2024

  17 juin 2024, par Erin

  User data is more valuable and sought after than ever. 

  Ninety-four percent of respondents in Cisco’s Data Privacy Benchmark Study said their customers wouldn’t buy from them if their data weren’t protected, with 95% saying privacy was a business imperative. 

  Unfortunately, the data collection practices of most businesses are far from acceptable and often put their customers’ privacy at risk. 

  But it doesn’t have to be this way. You can ethically collect valuable and insightful customer data—you just need the right tools.

  In this article, we show you what an ethical web analytics solution can look like, why Google Analytics is a problem and how you can collect data without risking your customers’ privacy.

  What is ethical web analytics ?

  Ethical web analytics put user privacy first. These platforms prioritise privacy and transparency by only collecting necessary data, avoiding implicit user identification and openly communicating data practices and tracking methods. 

  Ethical tools adhere to data protection laws like GDPR as standard (meaning businesses using these tools never have to worry about fines or disruptions). In other words, ethical web analytics refrain from exploiting and profiting from user behaviour and data. 

  Unfortunately, most traditional data solutions collect as much data as possible without users’ knowledge or consent.

  Why does digital privacy matter ?

  Digital privacy matters because companies have repeatedly proven they will collect and use data for financial gain. It also presents security risks. Unsecured user data can lead to identity theft, cyberattacks and harassment. 

  Big tech companies like Google and Meta are often to blame for all this. These companies collect millions of user data points — like age, gender, income, political beliefs and location. Worse still, they share this information with interested third parties.

  After public outrage over data breaches and other privacy scandals, consumers are taking active steps to disallow tracking where possible. IAPP’s Privacy and Consumer Trust Report finds that 68% of consumers across 19 countries are somewhat or very concerned about their digital privacy. 

  There’s no way around it : companies of all sizes and shapes need to consider how they handle and protect customers’ private information. 

  Why should you use an ethical web analytics tool ?

  When companies use ethical web analytics tools they can build customer trust, boost their brand reputation, improve data security practices and future proof their website tracking solution. 

  Boost brand reputation

  The fallout from a data privacy scandal can be severe. 

  Just look at what happened to Facebook during the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. The eponymous consulting firm harvested 50 million Facebook profiles and used that information to target people with political messages. Due to the instant public backlash, Facebook’s stock tanked, and use of the “delete Facebook” hashtag increased by 423% in the following days.

  That’s because consumers care about data privacy, according to Deloitte’s Connected Consumer Study :

  • Almost 90 percent agree they should be able to view and delete data companies collect 
  • 77 percent want the government to introduce stricter regulations
  • Half feel the benefits they get from online services outweigh data privacy concerns.

  If you can prove you buck the trend by collecting data using ethical methods, it can boost your brand’s reputation. 

  Build trust with customers

  At the same time, collecting data in an ethical way can help you build customer trust. You’ll go a long way to changing consumer perceptions, too. Almost half of consumers don’t like sharing data, and 57% believe companies sell their data. 

  This additional trust should generate a positive ROI for your business. According to Cisco’s Data Privacy Benchmark Study, the average company gains $180 for every $100 they invest in privacy. 

  Improve data security

  According to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach report, the average cost of a data breach is nearly $4.5 million. This kind of scenario becomes much less likely when you use an ethical tool that collects less data overall and anonymises the data you do collect. 

  Futureproof your web analytics solution

  The obvious risk of not complying with privacy regulations is a fine — which can be up to €20 million, or 4% of worldwide annual revenue in the case of GDPR.

  It’s not just fines and penalties you risk if you fail to comply with privacy regulations like GDPR. For some companies, especially larger ones, the biggest risk of non-compliance with privacy regulations is the potential sudden need to abandon Google Analytics and switch to an ethical alternative.

  If Data Protection Authorities ban Google Analytics again, as has happened in Austria, France, and other countries, businesses will be forced to drop everything and make an immediate transition to a compliant web analytics solution.

  When an organisation’s entire marketing operation relies on data, migrating to a new solution can be incredibly painful and time-consuming. So, the sooner you switch to an ethical tool, the less of a headache the process will be. 

  The problem with Google Analytics

  Google Analytics (GA) is the most popular analytics platform in the world, but it’s a world away from being an ethical tool. Here’s why :

  You don’t have data ownership

  Google Analytics is attractive to businesses of all sizes because of its price. Everyone loves getting something for free, but there’s still a cost — your and your customers’ data.

  That’s because Google combines the data you collect with information from the millions of other websites it tracks to inform its advertising efforts. It may also use your data to train large language models like Gemini. 

  It has a rocky history with GDPR laws

  Google and EU regulators haven’t always got along. For example, the German Data Protection Authority is investigating 200,000 pending cases against websites using GA. The platform has also been banned and added back to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework several times over the past few years. 

  You can use GA to collect data about EU customers right now, but there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to do so in the future. 

  It requires a specific setup to remain compliant

  While you can currently use GA in a GDPR-compliant way — owing to its inclusion in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework — you have to set it up in a very specific way. That’s because the platform’s compliance depends on what data you collect, how you inform users and the level of consent you acquire. You’ll still need to include an extensive privacy policy on your website. 

  What does ethical web analytics look like ?

  An ethical web analytics solution should put user privacy first, ensure compliance with regulations like GDPR, give businesses 100% control of the data they collect and be completely transparent about data collection and storage practices. 

  

  100% data ownership

  You don’t fully control customer data when you use Google Analytics. The search giant uses your data for its own advertising purposes and may also use it to train large language models like Gemini. 

  When you choose an ethical web analytics alternative like Matomo, you can ensure you completely own your data.

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  Respects user privacy

  It’s possible to track and measure user behaviour without collecting personally identifiable information (PII). Just look at the ethical web analytics tools we’ve reviewed below. 

  These platforms respect user privacy and conform to strict privacy regulations like GDPR, CCPA and HIPAA by incorporating some or all of the following features :

  • Opt-out mechanisms to let users refuse tracking
  • IP addresses anonymisation and other data anonymisation techniques
  • DoNotTrack options
  • Shorter expiration dates for tracking cookies

  In Matomo’s case, it’s all of the above. Better still, you can check our privacy credentials yourself. Our software’s source code is open source on GitHub and accessible to anyone at any time. 

  Compliant with government regulations

  While Google’s history with data regulations is tumultuous, an ethical web analytics platform should follow even the strictest privacy laws, including GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA, LGPD and PECR.

  But why stop there ? Matomo has been approved by the French Data Protection Authority (CNIL) as one of the few web analytics tools that French sites can use to collect data without tracking consent. So you don’t need an annoying consent banner popping up on your website anymore. 

  Try Matomo for Free

  Get the web insights you need, without compromising data accuracy.

  Start for free

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  Complete transparency 

  Ethical web analytics tools will be upfront about their data collection practices, whether that’s in the U.S., EU, or on your own private servers. Look for a solution that refrains from collecting personally identifiable information, shows where data is stored, and lets you alter tracking methods to increase privacy even further. 

  Some solutions, like Matomo, will increase transparency further by providing open source software. Anyone can find our source code on GitHub to see exactly how our platform tracks and stores user data. This means our code is regularly examined and reviewed by a community of developers, making it more secure, too.

  Ethical web analytics solutions

  There are several options for an ethical web analytics tool. We list three of the best providers below. 

  Matomo

  Matomo is an open source web analytics tool and privacy-focused Google Analytics alternative used by over one million sites globally. 

  

  Matomo is fully compliant with prominent global privacy regulations like GDPR, CCPA and HIPAA, meaning you never have to worry about collecting consent when tracking user behaviour. 

  The data you collect is completely accurate since Matomo doesn’t use data sampling and is 100% yours. We don’t share data with third parties but can prove it. Our product source code is publicly available on GitHub. As a community-led project, you can download and install it yourself for free. 

  With Matomo, you get a full range of web analytics capabilities and behavioural analytics. That includes your standard metrics (think visitors, traffic sources, bounce rates, etc.), advanced features to analyse user behaviour like A/B Testing, Form Analytics, Heatmaps and Session Recordings. 

  Migrating to Matomo is easy. You can even import historical Google Analytics data to generate meaningful insights immediately. 

  Try Matomo for Free

  Get the web insights you need, without compromising data accuracy.

  Start for free

  No credit card required

  Fathom

  Fathom Analytics is a lightweight privacy-focused analytics solution that launched in 2018. It aims to be an easy-to-use Google Analytics alternative that doesn’t compromise privacy. 

  

  Like Matomo, Fathom complies with all major privacy regulations, including GDPR and CCPA. It also provides 100% accurate, unsampled reports and doesn’t share your data with third parties. 

  While Fathom provides fairly comprehensive analytics reports, it doesn’t have some of Matomo’s more advanced features. That includes e-commerce tracking, heatmaps, session recordings, and more. 

  Plausible

  Plausible Analytics is another open source Google Analytics alternative that was built and hosted in the EU. 

  

  Launched in 2019, Plausible is a newer player in the privacy-focused analytics market. Still, its ultra-lightweight script makes it an attractive option for organisations that prioritise speed over everything else. 

  Like Matomo and Fathom, Plausible is GDPR and CCPA-compliant by design. Nor is there any cap on the amount of data you collect or any debate over whether the data is accurate (Plausible doesn’t use data sampling) or who owns the data (you do). 

  Matomo makes it easy to migrate to an ethical web analytics alternative

  There’s no reason to put your users’ privacy at risk, especially when there are so many benefits to choosing an ethical tool. Whether you want to avoid fines, build trust with your customers, or simply know you’re doing the right thing, choosing a privacy-focused, ethical solution like Matomo is taking a massive step in the right direction. 

  Making the switch is easy, too. Matomo is one of the few options that lets you import historical Google Analytics data, so starting from scratch is unnecessary. 

  Get started today by trying Matomo for free for 21-days. No credit card required. 

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• 10 Key Google Analytics Limitations You Should Be Aware Of

  9 mai 2022, par Erin

  Google Analytics (GA) is the biggest player in the web analytics space. But is it as “universal” as its brand name suggests ?
  

  Over the years users have pointed out a number of major Google Analytics limitations. Many of these are even more visible in Google Analytics 4. 

  Introduced in 2020, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has been sceptically received. As the sunset date of 1st, July 2023 for the current version, Google Universal Analytics (UA), approaches, the dismay grows stronger.

  To the point where people are pleading with others to intervene : 

  

  Main limitations of Google Analytics

  Google Analytics 4 is advertised as a more privacy-centred, comprehensive and “intelligent” web analytics platform. 

  According to Google, the newest version touts : 

  • Machine learning at its core provides better segmentation and fast-track access to granular insights 
  • Privacy-by-design controls, addressing restrictions on cookies and new regulatory demands 
  • More complete understanding of customer journeys across channels and devices 

  Some of these claims hold true. Others crumble upon a deeper investigation. Newly advertised Google Analytics capabilities such as ‘custom events’, ‘predictive insights’ and ‘privacy consent mode’ only have marginal improvements. 

  Complex setup, poor UI and lack of support with migration also leave many other users frustrated with GA4. 

  

  Let’s unpack all the current (and legacy) limitations of Google Analytics you should account for. 

  1. No Historical Data Imports 

  Google rushed users to migrate from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4. But they overlooked one important precondition — backwards compatibility. 

  You have no way to import data from Google Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4. 

  Historical records are essential for analysing growth trends and creating benchmarks for new marketing campaigns. Effectively, you are cut short from past insights — and forced to start strategising from scratch. 

  At present, Google offers two feeble solutions : 

  • Run data collection in parallel and have separate reporting for GA4 and UA until the latter is shut down. Then your UA records are gone. 
  • For Ecommerce data, manually duplicate events from UA at a new GA4 property while trying to figure out the new event names and parameters. 

  Google’s new data collection model is the reason for migration difficulties. 

  In Google Analytics 4, all analytics hits types — page hits, social hits, app/screen view, etc. — are recorded as events. Respectively, the “‘event’ parameter in GA4 is different from one in Google Universal Analytics as the company explains : 

  

  This change makes migration tedious — and Google offers little assistance with proper events and custom dimensions set up. 

  2. Data Collection Limits 

  If you’ve wrapped your head around new GA4 events, congrats ! You did a great job, but the hassle isn’t over. 

  You still need to pay attention to new Google Analytics limits on data collection for event parameters and user properties. 

  

  These apply to :

  • Automatically collected events
  • Enhanced measurement events
  • Recommended events 
  • Custom events 

  When it comes to custom events, GA4 also has a limit of 25 custom parameters per event. Even though it seems a lot, it may not be enough for bigger websites. 

  You can get higher limits by upgrading to Google Analytics 360, but the costs are steep. 

  3. Limited GDPR Compliance 

  Google Analytics has a complex history with European GDPR compliance. 

  A 2020 ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) invalidated the Privacy Shield framework Google leaned upon. This framework allowed the company to regulate EU-US data transfers of sensitive user data. 

  But after this loophole was closed, Google faced a heavy series of privacy-related fines :

  • French data protection authority, CNIL, ruled that  “the transfers to the US of personal data collected through Google Analytics are illegal” — and proceeded to fine Google for a record-setting €150 million at the beginning of 2022. 
  • Austrian regulators also deemed Google in breach of GDPR requirements and also branded the analytics as illegal. 

  Other EU-member states might soon proceed with similar rulings. These, in turn, can directly affect Google Analytics users, whose businesses could face brand damage and regulatory fines for non-compliance. In fact, companies cannot select where the collected analytics data will be stored — on European servers or abroad — nor can they obtain this information from Google.

  Getting a web analytics platform that allows you to keep data on your own servers or select specific Cloud locations is a great alternative. 

  Google also has been lax with its cookie consent policy and doesn’t properly inform consumers about data collection, storage or subsequent usage. Google Analytics 4 addresses this issue to an extent. 

  By default, GA4 relies on first-party cookies, instead of third-party ones — which is a step forward. But the user privacy controls are hard to configure without losing most of the GA4 functionality. Implementing user consent mode to different types of data collection also requires a heavy setup. 

  4. Strong Reliance on Sampled Data 

  To compensate for ditching third-party cookies, GA4 more heavily leans on sampled data and machine learning to fill the gaps in reporting. 

  In GA4 sampling automatically applies when you :

  • Perform advanced analysis such as cohort analysis, exploration, segment overlap or funnel analysis with not enough data 
  • Have over 10,000,000 data rows and generate any type of non-default report 

  Google also notes that data sampling can occur at lower thresholds when you are trying to get granular insights. If there’s not enough data or because Google thinks it’s too complex to retrieve. 

  In their words :

  

  Data sampling adds “guesswork” to your reports, meaning you can’t be 100% sure of data accuracy. The divergence from actual data depends on the size and quality of sampled data. Again, this isn’t something you can control. 

  Unlike Google Analytics 4, Matomo applies no data sampling. Your reports are always accurate and fully representative of actual user behaviours. 

  5. No Proper Data Anonymization 

  Data anonymization allows you to collect basic analytics about users — visits, clicks, page views — but without personally identifiable information (or PII) such as geo-location, assigns tracking ID or other cookie-based data. 

  This reduced your ability to :

  • Remarket 
  • Identify repeating visitors
  • Do advanced conversion attribution 

  But you still get basic data from users who ignored or declined consent to data collection. 

  By default, Google Analytics 4 anonymizes all user IP addresses — an upgrade from UA. However, it still assigned a unique user ID to each user. These count as personal data under GDPR. 

  For comparison, Matomo provides more advanced privacy controls. You can anonymize :

  • Previously tracked raw data 
  • Visitor IP addresses
  • Geo-location information
  • User IDs 

  This can ensure compliance, especially if you operate in a sensitive industry — and delight privacy-mindful users ! 

  6. No Roll-Up Reporting

  Getting a bird’s-eye view of all your data is helpful when you need hotkey access to main sites — global traffic volume, user count or percentage of returning visitors.

  With Roll-Up Reporting, you can see global-performance metrics for multiple localised properties (.co.nz, .co.uk, .com, etc,) in one screen. Then zoom in on specific localised sites when you need to. 

  

  7. Report Processing Latency 

  The average data processing latency is 24-48 hours with Google Analytics. 

  Accounts with over 200,000 daily sessions get data refreshes only once a day. So you won’t be seeing the latest data on core metrics. This can be a bummer during one-day promo events like Black Friday or Cyber Monday when real-time information can prove to be game-changing ! 

  Matomo processes data with lower latency even for high-traffic websites. Currently, we have 6-24 hour latency for cloud deployments. On-premises web analytics can be refreshed even faster — within an hour or instantly, depending on the traffic volumes. 

  8. No Native Conversion Optimisation Features

  Google Analytics users have to use third-party tools to get deeper insights like how people are interacting with your webpage or call-to-action.

  You can use the free Google Optimize tool, but it comes with limits : 

  • No segmentation is available 
  • Only 10 simultaneous running experiments allowed 

  There isn’t a native integration between Google Optimize and Google Analytics 4. Instead, you have to manually link an Optimize Container to an analytics account. Also, you can’t select experiment dimensions in Google Analytics reports.

  What’s more, Google Optimize is a basic CRO tool, best suited for split testing (A/B testing) of copy, visuals, URLs and page layouts. If you want to get more advanced data, you need to pay for extra tools. 

  Matomo comes with a native set of built-in conversion optimization features : 

  • Heatmaps 
  • User session recording 
  • Sales funnel analysis 
  • A/B testing 
  • Form submission analytics 

  

  9. Deprecated Annotations

  Annotations come in handy when you need to provide extra context to other team members. For example, point out unusual traffic spikes or highlight a leak in the sales funnel. 

  This feature was available in Universal Analytics but is now gone in Google Analytics 4. But you can still quickly capture, comment and share knowledge with your team in Matomo. 

  You can add annotations to any graph that shows statistics over time including visitor reports, funnel analysis charts or running A/B tests. 

  10. No White Label Option 

  This might be a minor limitation of Google Analytics, but a tangible one for agency owners. 

  Offering an on-brand, embedded web analytics platform can elevate your customer experience. But white label analytics were never a thing with Google Analytics, unlike Matomo. 

  Wrap Up 

  Google set a high bar for web analytics. But Google Analytics inherent limitations around privacy, reporting and deployment options prompt more users to consider Google Analytics alternatives, like Matomo. 

  With Matomo, you can easily migrate your historical data records and store customer data locally or in a designated cloud location. We operate by a 100% unsampled data principle and provide an array of privacy controls for advanced compliance. 

  Start your 21-day free trial (no credit card required) to see how Matomo compares to Google Analytics ! 

  21 day free trial. No credit card required.

  Your email address
  

  Your website address
  

  Your Analytics subdomain will be .matomo.cloud (change)

  Choose your analytics subdomain
  

  .matomo.cloud

  I hereby accept the terms and conditions and the data processing agreeement (DPA).

  
  Your information will be used to create an account on our cloud service. For more information please consult our privacy policy.
  
  

  » Start improving your websites now