CCPA vs GDPR: Understanding Their Impact on Data Analytics 19 Mar 10:22 AM (12 days ago)

With over 400 million internet users in Europe and 331 million in the US (11% of which reside in California alone), understanding the nuances of privacy laws like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is crucial for compliant and ethical consumer data collection.

Navigating this compliance landscape can be challenging for businesses serving European and Californian markets.

This guide explores the key differences between CCPA and GDPR, their impact on data analytics, and how to ensure your business meets these essential privacy requirements.

What is the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)?

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is a data privacy law that gives California consumers control over their personal information. It applies to for-profit businesses operating in California that meet specific criteria related to revenue, data collection and sales.

Origins and purpose

The CCPA addresses growing concerns about data privacy and how businesses use personal information in California. The act passed in 2018 and went into effect on 1 January 2020.

Key features

• Grants consumers the right to know what personal information is collected
• Provides the right to delete personal information
• Allows consumers to opt out of the sale of their personal information
• Prohibits discrimination against consumers who exercise their CCPA rights

Key definitions under the CCPA framework

• Business: A for-profit entity doing business in California and meeting one or more of these conditions:
  • Has annual gross revenues over $25 million;
  • Buys, receives, sells or shares 50,000 or more consumers’ personal information; or
  • Derives 50% or more of its annual revenues from selling consumers’ personal information
• Consumer: A natural person who is a California resident
• Personal Information: Information that could be linked to, related to or used to identify a consumer or household, such as online identifiers, IP addresses, email addresses, social security numbers, cookie identifiers and more

What is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a data privacy and protection law passed by the European Union (EU). It’s one of the strongest and most influential data privacy laws worldwide and applies to all organisations that process the personal data of individuals in the EU.

Origins and purpose

The GDPR was passed in 2016 and went into effect on 25 May 2018. It aims to harmonise data privacy laws in Europe and give people in the European Economic Area (EEA) privacy rights and control over their data.

Key features

• Applies to all organisations that process the personal data of individuals in the EEA
• Grants individuals a wide range of privacy rights over their data
• Requires organisations to obtain explicit and informed consent for most data processing
• Mandates appropriate security measures to protect personal data
• Imposes significant fines and penalties for non-compliance

Key definitions under the GDPR framework

• Data Subject: An identified or identifiable person
• Personal Data: Any information relating to a data subject
• Data Controller: The entity or organisation that determines how personal data is processed and what for
• Data Processor: The entity or organisation that processes the data on behalf of the controller

CCPA vs. GDPR: Key similarities

The CCPA and GDPR enhance consumer privacy rights and give individuals greater control over their data.

Dimension	CCPA	GDPR
Purpose	Protect consumer privacy	Protect individual data rights
Key Rights	Right to access, delete and opt out of sale	Right to access, rectify, erase and restrict processing
Transparency	Requires transparency around data collection and use	Requires transparency about data collection, processing and use

CCPA vs. GDPR: Key differences

While they have similar purposes, the CCPA and GDPR differ significantly in their scope, approach and specific requirements.

Dimension	CCPA	GDPR
Scope	For-profit businesses only	All organisations processing EU consumer data
Territorial Reach	California-based natural persons	All data subjects within the EEA
Consent	Opt-out system	Opt-in system
Penalties	Per violation based on its intentional or negligent nature	Case-by-case based on comprehensive assessment
Individual Rights	Narrower (relative to GDPR)	Broader (relative to CCPA)

CCPA vs. GDPR: A multi-dimensional comparison

The previous sections gave a broad overview of the similarities and differences between CCPA and GDPR. Let’s now examine nine key dimensions where these regulations converge or diverge and discuss their impact on data analytics.

#1. Scope and territorial reach

The GDPR has a much broader scope than the CCPA. It applies to all organisations that process the personal data of individuals in the EEA, regardless of their business model, purpose or physical location.

The CCPA applies to medium and large for-profit businesses that derive a substantial portion of their earnings from selling Californian consumers’ personal information. It doesn’t apply to non-profits, government agencies or smaller for-profit companies.

Impact on data analytics

The difference in scope significantly impacts data analytics practices. Smaller businesses may not need to comply with either regulation, some may only need to follow the CCPA, while most global businesses must comply with both. This often requires different methods for collecting and processing data in California, Europe, and elsewhere.

#2. Penalties and fines for non-compliance

Both the CCPA and GDPR impose penalties for non-compliance, but the severity of fines differs significantly:

CCPA	Maximum penalty
	$2,500 per unintentional violation $7,500 per intentional violation

“Per violation” means per violation per impacted consumer. For example, three intentional CCPA violations affecting 1,000 consumers would result in 3,000 total violations and a $22.5 million maximum penalty (3,000 × $7,500).

The largest CCPA fine to date was Zoom’s $85 million settlement in 2021.

In contrast, the GDPR has resulted in 2,248 fines totalling almost €6.6 billion since 2018 — €2.4 billion of which were for non-compliance.

GDPR	Maximum penalty
	€20 million or 4% of all revenue earned the previous year

So far, the biggest fine imposed under the GDPR was Meta’s €1.2 billion fine in May 2023 — 15 times more than Zoom had to pay California.

Impact on data analytics

The significant difference in potential fines demonstrates the importance of regulatory compliance for data analytics professionals. Non-compliance can have severe financial consequences, directly affecting budget allocation and business operations.

Businesses must ensure their data collection, storage and processing practices comply with regulations in both Europe and California.

Choosing privacy-first, compliance-ready analytics platforms like Matomo is instrumental for mitigating non-compliance risks.

#3. Data subject rights and consumer rights

The CCPA and GDPR give people similar rights over their data, but their limitations and details differ.

Rights common to the CCPA and GDPR

• Right to Access/Know: People can access their personal information and learn what data is collected, its source, its purpose and how it’s shared
• Right to Delete/Erasure: People can request the deletion of their personal information, with some exceptions
• Right to Non-Discrimination: Businesses can’t discriminate against people who exercise their privacy rights

Consumer rights unique to the CCPA

• Right to Opt Out of Sale: Consumers can prohibit the sale of their personal information
• Right to Notice: Businesses must inform consumers about data collection practices
• Right to Disclosure: Consumers can request specific information collected about them

Data subject rights unique to the GDPR

• Right to be Informed: Broader transparency requirements encompass data retention, automated decision-making and international transfers
• Right to Rectification: Data subjects may request the correction of inaccurate data
• Right to Restrict Processing: Consumers may limit data use in certain situations
• Right to Data Portability: Businesses must provide individual consumer data in a secure, portable format when requested
• Right to Withdraw Consent: Consumers may withdraw previously granted consent to data processing

	CCPA	GDPR
Right to Access or Know	✓	✓
Right to Delete or Erase	✓	✓
Right to Non-Discrimination	✓	✓
Right to Opt-Out	✓
Right to Notice	✓
Right to Disclosure	✓
Right to be Informed		✓
Right to Rectification		✓
Right to Restrict Processing		✓
Right to Data Portability		✓
Right to Withdraw Consent		✓

Impact on data analytics

Data analysts must understand these rights and ensure compliance with both regulations, which could potentially require separate data handling processes for EU and California consumers.

#4. Opt-out vs. opt-in

The CCPA generally follows an opt-out model, while the GDPR requires explicit consent from individuals before processing their data.

Impact on data analytics

For CCPA compliance, businesses can collect data by default if they provide opt-out mechanisms. Failing to process opt-out requests can result in severe penalties, like Sephora’s $1.2 million fine.

Under GDPR, organisations must obtain explicit consent before collecting any data, which can limit the amount of data available for analysis.

#5. Parental consent

The CCPA and GDPR have provisions regarding parental consent for processing children’s data. The CCPA requires parental consent for children under 13, while the GDPR sets the age at 16, though member states can lower it to 13.

Impact on data analytics

This requirement significantly impacts businesses targeting younger audiences. In Europe and the US, companies must implement different methods to verify users’ ages and obtain parental consent when necessary.

The California Attorney General’s Office recently fined Tilting Point Media LLC $500,000 for sharing children’s data without parental consent.

#6. Data security requirements

Both regulations require businesses to implement adequate security measures to protect personal data. However, the GDPR has more prescriptive requirements, outlining specific security measures and emphasising a risk-based approach.

Impact on data analytics

Data analytics professionals must ensure that data is processed and stored securely to avoid breaches and potential fines.

#7. International data transfers

Both the CCPA and GDPR address international data transfers. Under the CCPA, businesses must only inform consumers about international transfers. The GDPR has stricter requirements, including ensuring adequate data protection safeguards for transfers outside the EEA.

Other rules, like the Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2), also affect international data transfers, especially in the financial industry.

PSD2 requires strong customer authentication and secure communication channels for payment services. This adds complexity to cross-border data flows.

Impact on data analytics

The primary impact is on businesses serving European residents from outside Europe. Processing data within the European Union is typically advisable. Meta’s record-breaking €1.2 billion fine was specifically for transferring data from the EEA to the US without sufficient safeguards.

Choosing the right analytics platform helps avoid these issues.

For example, Matomo offers a free, open-source, self-hosted analytics platform you can deploy anywhere. You can also choose a managed, GDPR-compliant cloud analytics solution with all data storage and processing servers within the EU (in Germany), ensuring your data never leaves the EEA.

#8. Enforcement mechanisms

The California Attorney General is responsible for enforcing CCPA requirements, while in Europe, the Data Protection Authority (DPA) in each EU member state enforces GDPR requirements.

Impact on data analytics

Data analytics professionals should be familiar with their respective enforcement bodies and their powers to support compliance efforts and minimise the risk of fines and penalties.

#9. Legal basis for personal data processing

The GDPR outlines six legal grounds for processing personal data:

• Consent
• Contract
• Legal obligation
• Vital interests
• Public task
• Legitimate interests

The CCPA doesn’t explicitly define lawful bases but focuses on consumer rights and transparency in general.

Impact on data analytics

Businesses subject to the GDPR must identify and document a valid lawful basis for each processing activity.

Compliance rules under CCPA and GDPR

Complying with the CCPA and GDPR requires a comprehensive approach to data privacy. Here’s a summary of the essential compliance rules for each framework:

CCPA compliance rules

• Create clear and concise privacy policies outlining data collection and use practices
• Give consumers the right to opt-out
• Respond to consumer requests to access, delete and correct their personal information
• Implement reasonable security measures for consumers’ personal data protection
• Never discriminate against consumers who exercise their CCPA rights

GDPR compliance rules

• Obtain explicit and informed consent for data processing activities
• Implement technical and organisational controls to safeguard personal data
• Designate a Data Protection Officer (DPO) if necessary
• Perform data protection impact assessments (DPIAs) for high-risk processing activities
• Maintain records of processing activities
• Promptly report data breaches to supervisory authorities

Navigating the CCPA and GDPR with confidence

Understanding the nuances of the CCPA and GDPR is crucial for businesses operating in the US and Europe. These regulations significantly impact data collection and analytics practices.

Implementing robust data security practices and prioritising privacy and compliance are essential to avoid severe penalties and build trust with today’s privacy-conscious consumers.

Privacy-centric analytics platforms like Matomo enable businesses to collect, analyse and use data responsibly and transparently, extracting valuable insights while maintaining compliance with both CCPA and GDPR requirements.

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The Guide to an Ethical Web: With Big Data Comes Big Responsibility 13 Mar 1:52 PM (18 days ago)

Roughly two-thirds of Earth’s 8 billion people use the internet for communication, education, entertainment, business and more. We are connected globally in ways previous generations could’ve never dreamed of. It’s been a wild ride, and we’re just starting.

Many users have learned that experiences online can be a mix of good and bad. Sometimes, the bad can feel like it outweighs the good, particularly when large tech companies use our data shadily, cut corners on accessibility or act in any other way that devalues the human being behind the screen.

As fellow internet citizens, what responsibility do we have to create a more ethical web for our customers?

In this article, we’ll look at ethical principles online and how to act (and not act) to build trust, reach customers regardless of ability, safeguard privacy and stay compliant while improving business outcomes.

What is an “ethical web”?

When we talk about the ethical web, we’re talking about the use of the internet in an ethical way. Among other values, it involves transparency, consent and restraint. It applies the Golden Rule to the internet: Treat others (and their data and user experience) how you’d want yourself (and yours) to be treated. 

With limited oversight, the internet has evolved in ways that often prioritise profit over user rights. While selling data or pushing cookies might seem logical in this context, they can undermine trust and reputation. And the tide is slowly but surely shifting as consumers and legislators push back.

Consumers no longer want to buy from companies that will use their data in ways they don’t agree to. In 2022, 75% of UK and US consumers surveyed said they were uncomfortable purchasing from businesses with weak data ethics.

Legislators worldwide have been taking part in this effort for nearly a decade, with laws like GDPR in the EU and LGPD in Brazil, as well as the various state laws in the US, like California’s CCPA and Virginia’s VCDPA. 

Even tech giants are no longer above the law, like Meta, which was fined over a billion Euros for GDPR violations in 2023.

These changes may make the internet feel less business-friendly at first glance, but ethical choices ultimately build a stronger digital ecosystem for both companies and consumers. 

Likewise, all internet users alike can make this happen by shunning short-term profit and convenience for healthier, long-term choices and behaviour.

As we dig into what it takes to build an ethical web, remember that no company or individual is free from mistakes in these areas nor is it an overnight fix. Progress is made one click at a time.

Ethical SEO: Optimising your content and your ethics

Content creation and search engine optimisation (SEO) require so much work that it’s hard to fault creators for not always abiding by search engine guidelines and seeking shortcuts – especially when there’s a sea of LinkedIn posts about how copying/pasting ChatGPT responses helped someone rank #1 for several keywords in one week.

However, users turn to Google and other search engines for something of substance that will guide or entertain them.

Content meets customer needs and is more likely to lead to sales when it’s well-written, original and optimised just enough to make it easier to find on the first page of results. This doesn’t happen when content teams dilute quality and waste a reader or viewer’s time on posts that will only yield a higher bounce rate.

Some SEO pros do find success by building backlinks through private blog networks or crafting a million unedited posts with generative AI, but it’s short-lived. Google and other search engines always catch up, and their content plummets or gets penalised and delisted with every new update.

Content teams can still rank at the top while sticking to ethical SEO principles. Here’s a sample list of dos and don’ts to get started:

• Do put content quality above all else. Make content that serves the audience, not just a brand or partner ad network.
• Do apply the E-E-A-T framework. Search engines value content written by authors who bring expertise, experience, authority and trust (E-E-A-T).
• Don’t keyword stuff. This might have worked in the early days of SEO, but it hurts readability and now harms article performance.
• Do use alt text as intended. While it can still help SEO, alt text should prioritise accessibility for users with screen readers.

• Don’t steal content. Whether it’s violating copyright, copying/pasting other people’s content or simply paraphrasing without citation, companies should never steal content.
• Don’t steal ideas. It’s okay to join in on a current conversation or trends in an industry, but content creators should be sure they have something valuable to add.
• Do use AI tools as partners, not creators. AI can be an incredible aid in crafting content, but it should never be posted without a human’s touch.

When we follow ethical SEO guidelines and get more clients with our content, how do we best handle their data?

Ethical data governance: Important principles and how to avoid data misuse

Data governance comprises every aspect of how a company manages data, including storage, security, privacy, lifecycle management, setting policies and maintaining compliance with laws like GDPR and HIPAA.

Applying data ethics to governance is doing it all in a transparent, restrained way that acknowledges an individual’s right to ownership over their data. 

For organisations, this translates to getting consent to collect data and clearly spelling out how it will be stored and used — and sticking to it.

If a user’s birth date is needed for legal reasons, it cannot be sold to a third party or later used for something else without explicit permission. Reusing data in ways that stray from its original purpose is a form of commingling, one of the data misuses that is easy for even well-intentioned teams to do accidentally.

Ethical data governance also includes the vigilant safeguarding of users’ data and minimising potential privacy issues.

Failing to implement and adhere to strong security measures leads to situations like the National Public Data (NPD) breach, where cyber criminals expose the addresses, phone numbers and social security numbers of hundreds of millions of people. This was due in large part to a weakness in storing login credentials and a lack of password policy enforcement.

No one at NPD wanted this to happen, but security likely took a backseat to other business concerns, leading to the company’s filing for bankruptcy.

More importantly, as a data broker that aggregates information from other sources, the people affected likely had no clue this organisation had been buying and selling their data. The companies originally entrusted with their information helped provide the leaked data, showing a lack of care for privacy.

Situations like this reinforce the need for strict data protection laws and for companies to refine their data governance approach. 

Businesses can improve their data governance posturing with managers and other higher-ups setting the right tone at the top. If leadership takes a firm and disciplined approach by setting and adhering to strong policies, the rest of the team will follow and minimise the chances of data misuse and security incidents.

One way to start is by using tools that make the principles of data ethics easier to follow.

Ethical web analytics: Drawing insights while respecting privacy

Web analytics tools are designed to gather data about users and what they do while visiting a site.
The most popular tool worldwide is Google Analytics (GA). Its brand name and feature set carry a lot of weight, but many former users have switched to alternatives due to dissatisfaction with the changes made in GA4 and reservations about the way Google handles data.

Google is another tech giant that has been slapped with massive GDPR fines for issues over its data processing practices. It has run so afoul of compliance that it was banned in France and Austria for a while. Additionally, in the US Department of Justice’s ongoing antitrust lawsuit against Google, the company’s data tracking has been targeted for both how it affects users and potential rivals.

Unlike GA, ethical web analytics tools allow websites to get the data they need while respecting user privacy.

Matomo offers privacy protections like:

• Providing data anonymisation and IP anonymisation
• Allowing users the ability to not process personally identifiable information (PII)
• Disabling the ability to track users across websites by default to make compliance easier
• Giving users full control over their customer data without the risk of it getting into the hands of third parties
• Much more

We’re also fully transparent about how we handle your data on the web and in the Matomo Cloud and in how we build Matomo as an open-source tool. Our openness allows you to be more open with your customers and how you ethically use their data.

There are other GDPR-compliant tools on the market, but some of them, like Adobe Analytics, require more setup from users for compliance, don’t grant full control over data and don’t offer on-premise options or consent-free tracking.

Beyond tracking, there are other ways to make a user’s experience more enjoyable and ethical.

Ethical user experience: User-friendliness, not user-hostility

When designing a website or application, creating a positive user experience (UX) always comes first. 

The UI should be simple to navigate, data and privacy policy information should be easy to find and customers should feel welcomed. They must never be tricked into consenting or installing. 

When businesses resort to user-hostile tactics, the UX becomes a battle between the user and them. What may seem like a clever tactic to increase sign-ups can alienate potential customers and ruin a brand’s image. 

Here are some best practices for creating a more ethical UX:

Avoid dark patterns

Dark patterns are UI designs and strategies that mislead users into paying for, agreeing to or doing something they don’t actually want. These designs are unethical because they’re manipulative and remove transparency and consent from the interaction. 

In some cases, they’re illegal and can bring lawsuits. 

In 2023, Italy’s Data Protection Authority (DPA) fined a digital marketing company €300,000 for alleged GDPR violations. They employed dark patterns by asking customers to accept cookies again after rejecting them and placing the option to reject cookies outside the cookie banner. 

Despite their legality and 56% of surveyed customers losing trust in platforms that employ dark patterns, a review by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that 76% of the websites examined contained at least one dark pattern.

If a company is worried that they may be relying on dark patterns, here are some examples of what to avoid:

• Pre-ticking boxes to have users agree to third-party cookies, sign up for a newsletter, etc.
• Complicated cookie banners without a one-click way to reject all unnecessary cookies
• Hiding important text with text colour, under drop-down menus or requiring hovering over something with a mouse 
• “Confirm shaming” users with emotionally manipulative language to delay subscription cancellations or opt out of tracking 

Improve trust centres

Trust centres are the sections of a website that outline how a company approaches topics like data governance, user privacy and security. 

They should be easy to find and understand. If a user has a question about a company’s data policy, it should be one click away with language that doesn’t require a law degree to comprehend.

Additionally, trust centres must cover all relevant details, including where data is stored and who does the subprocessing. This is an area where even some of the best-intentioned companies may miss the mark, but it’s also an easy fix and a great place to start creating a more ethical web.

Embrace inclusivity

People want to feel welcomed to the party — and deserve to be — regardless of their race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity, orientation or ability. 

Inclusivity is great for customers and companies alike. 

A study by the Unstereotype Alliance found that progressive marketing drove up short- and long-term sales, customer loyalty and purchase consideration. A Kantar study reported that 75% of surveyed customers around the world consider a company’s diversity and inclusivity when making a purchasing decision.

An easy place to start embracing inclusivity is with a website’s blog images. The people in photos and cartoons should reflect a variety of different backgrounds.

Another area to improve inclusivity is by making your site or app more accessible.

Accessibility ethics: An internet for everyone

Accessibility is designing your product in a way that everyone can enjoy or take part in, regardless of ability. Digital accessibility is applying this design to the web and applications by making accommodations like adding descriptive alt text to images for users with visual impairments.

Just because someone has a hearing, vision, speech, mobility, neurological or other impairment doesn’t mean they have any less of a right to shop online, read silly listicles or get into arguments with strangers in the comment section.

Beyond being the right thing to do, the Fable team shows there’s a strong business case for accessibility. People with disabilities have money to spend, and the accommodations businesses make for them often benefit people without disabilities, too – as anyone who streams with subtitles can attest.

Despite being a win-win for greater inclusivity and business, much of the web is still inaccessible. WebAIM, a leader in web accessibility, studied a million web pages and found an average of over 55 accessibility errors per page.

We must all play a more active role in improving the experience of our users with disabilities, and we can start with accessibility auditing and testing.

An accessibility audit is an evaluation of how usable a site is for people with disabilities. It may be done in-house by an expert on a company’s team or, for better results, a third-party consultant who can give a fully objective audit.

Auditing might consist of running an automated tool or manually checking your site, PDFs, emails and other materials for compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines list.

Accessibility testing is narrower than auditing. It checks how accessibility or its absence looks in action. It can be done after a site, app, email or product is released, but it ideally starts in the development process.

Testing should be done manually and with automated tools. Manual checks put developers in the position of their users, allowing them to get a better idea of what users are dealing with firsthand. Automated tools can save time and money, but there should always be manual testing in the process.

Auditing gives teams an idea of where to start with improving accessibility, and testing helps make sure accommodations work as intended.

Conclusion

At Matomo, we strive to make the ethical web a reality, starting with web analytics.

For our users, it means full compliance with stringent policies like GDPR and providing 100% accurate data. For their customers, it’s collecting only the data required to do the job and enabling cookieless configurations to get rid of annoying banners. 

For both parties, it’s knowing that respect for privacy is one of our foundational values, whether it’s the ability to look under Matomo’s hood and read our open-source code, the option to store data on-premise to minimise the chances of it falling into the wrong hands or one of the other ways that we protect privacy.

If you weren’t 100% ethical before, it’s never too late to change. You can even bring your Google Analytics data with you.

Join us in our mission to improve the web. We can’t do it alone! 

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A Primer to Ethical Marketing: How to Build Trust in a Privacy-First World 11 Mar 1:59 PM (20 days ago)

Imagine a marketing landscape where transparency replaces tactics, where consumer privacy is prioritised over exploitation, and where authentic value builds genuine relationships.

This isn’t just an ideal—it’s the future of marketing. And it starts with ethical marketing practices.

76% of consumers refuse to buy from companies they do not trust with their data. Ethical marketing has become essential for business survival. As privacy regulations tighten and third-party cookies phase out, marketers face a critical question: how can they balance effective, personalised campaigns whilst respecting privacy?

This comprehensive guide explores what ethical marketing is, the key principles behind ethical marketing practices, and practical strategies to implement an ethical approach that builds trust while driving growth.

What is ethical marketing? A comprehensive definition

Ethical marketing places respect for consumer boundaries at its core whilst delivering genuine value. It prioritises transparent practices, honest communication, and fair value exchange with consumers. This approach represents a significant shift from traditional marketing, which often relied on collecting vast amounts of user data through invasive tracking methods and obscure policies.

The modern approach to ethical marketing creates a foundation built on three key pillars:

• User Control: Giving people genuine choice and agency over their data
• Fair Value: Providing clear benefits in exchange for any data shared
• Transparency: Being honest about how data is collected, used, and protected

Key principles of ethical marketing

Transparency

Transparency means being clear and forthright about your marketing practices, data collection policies, and business operations. It involves:

• Using plain language to explain how you collect and use customer data
• Being upfront about pricing, product limitations, and terms of service
• Disclosing sponsored content and affiliate relationships
• Making privacy policies accessible and understandable

When Matomo surveyed 2,000 consumers, 81% said they believe an organisation’s data practices reflect their overall treatment of customers. Transparency isn’t just about compliance—it’s about demonstrating respect.

Honesty

While similar to transparency, honesty focuses specifically on truthfulness in communications:

• Avoiding misleading claims or exaggerations about products and services
• Not manipulating statistics or research findings to support marketing narratives
• Representing products accurately in advertisements and marketing materials
• Acknowledging mistakes and taking responsibility when things go wrong

Social responsibility

Ethical marketing requires consideration of a brand’s impact on society as a whole:

• Considering environmental impacts of marketing campaigns and business practices
• Promoting diversity and inclusion in marketing representations
• Supporting social causes authentically rather than through “purpose-washing”
• Ensuring marketing activities don’t promote harmful stereotypes or behaviours

Ethical marketing dilemmas: Navigating complex business decisions

Data privacy concerns

The digital marketing landscape has been transformed by increasing awareness of data privacy issues and stricter regulations like GDPR, CCPA, and upcoming legislation. Key challenges include:

• The phase-out of third-party cookies, impacting targeting and measurement
• Growing consumer resistance to invasive tracking technologies
• Balancing personalisation with privacy (71% of consumers expect personalised experiences, yet demand privacy)
• Ensuring compliance across different jurisdictional requirements

Cultural sensitivity

Global brands must navigate complex cultural landscapes:

• Avoiding cultural appropriation in marketing campaigns
• Understanding varied cultural expectations around privacy
• Respecting local customs and values in international marketing
• Adapting messaging appropriately for diverse audiences

Environmental sustainability

The environmental impact of marketing activities is under increasing scrutiny:

• Digital carbon footprints from ad serving and website hosting
• Waste generated from physical marketing materials
• Promoting sustainable products honestly without greenwashing
• Aligning marketing messages with actual business practices

The benefits of ethical marketing

For years, digital marketing has relied on third-party data collection and broad-scale tracking. However, new regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, and the end of third-party cookies are pushing brands to adopt ethical data practices.

Increased customer loyalty

Ethical marketing fosters deeper relationships with customers by building trust. Research consistently shows that consumers are more loyal to brands they trust, with 71% indicating they would stop buying from a brand if trust is broken.

These trust-based relationships are more resilient during business challenges. When customers believe in a company’s integrity, they’re more likely to give the benefit of the doubt during controversies or service issues. They’re also more likely to provide constructive feedback rather than simply leaving for competitors.

Perhaps most importantly, loyal customers become advocates, sharing positive experiences with others and defending the brand against criticism. This organic advocacy is far more powerful than paid promotions and reduces customer acquisition costs significantly over time.

Enhanced brand reputation

A strong ethical stance improves overall brand perception across multiple dimensions. Media outlets are increasingly focused on corporate behaviour, providing positive coverage for ethical practices that extends a brand’s reach organically.

Social conversations about ethical brands tend to be more positive, with consumers sharing experiences and values rather than just discussing products. This creates a halo effect that benefits all aspects of the business.

This enhanced reputation also provides resilience during public relations challenges. Organisations with strong ethical foundations find it easier to navigate controversies because they’ve built a reservoir of goodwill with customers, employees, and other stakeholders.

Competitive advantage

Ethical marketing provides several distinct competitive advantages in modern markets. It helps brands access privacy-conscious consumer segments that actively avoid companies with questionable data practices. These segments often include higher-income, educated consumers who are valuable long-term customers.

Ethical approaches also reduce vulnerability to regulatory changes and potential penalties. As privacy laws continue to evolve globally, organisations with strong ethical foundations find compliance easier and less disruptive than those scrambling to meet minimum requirements.

Perhaps most significantly, ethical marketing supports more sustainable growth trajectories. While manipulative tactics might drive short-term results, they typically lead to higher churn rates and increasing acquisition costs. Ethical approaches build foundations for long-term success and stable growth.

For a detailed roadmap, download the Ethical Marketing Guide.

Case studies: Ethical marketing in action

Patagonia: Purpose-driven marketing

Patagonia integrates sustainability into its marketing, reinforcing its commitment to ethical business practices. By aligning with social causes, the brand strengthens customer loyalty.

Apple: Privacy as a competitive advantage

Apple positions itself as a leader in consumer privacy, ensuring data protection remains central to its marketing strategy. This commitment has become a key differentiator in the tech industry.

Matomo: The ethical analytics tool

Matomo offers privacy-first analytics that prioritise data ownership and compliance. Businesses using Matomo benefit from accurate insights while respecting user privacy.

These companies demonstrate that ethical marketing is not just a compliance requirement—it is a long-term competitive advantage.

Strategies for implementing ethical marketing

Aligning marketing efforts with brand values

Consistency between values and actions is essential for ethical marketing. This alignment starts with a clear understanding of what your organisation truly stands for—not just aspirational statements, but genuine commitments that inform daily decisions.

Implementing this alignment requires cross-functional collaboration. Marketing teams need to work closely with product development, customer service, and leadership to ensure consistency across all touchpoints. When different departments send contradictory messages about company values, trust erodes quickly.

Clear guidelines help marketing teams apply values in practical decisions, from campaign concepts to media placements. Regular ethical reviews of marketing plans can identify potential issues before campaigns launch, avoiding reactive corrections that damage credibility.

Privacy-first data strategies

Developing robust approaches to customer data is fundamental to ethical marketing. This starts with prioritising first-party data (collected directly from your own channels) and zero-party data (actively shared by customers through preference centres, surveys, and similar mechanisms).

Measuring success doesn’t have to come at the expense of privacy. Ethical analytics provide accurate insights while protecting user data, ensuring compliance, and enhancing customer trust.

Ethical personalisation approaches focus on using aggregated or anonymised data rather than individual tracking. This allows for relevant experiences without the invasive feeling that erodes trust when consumers feel watched across the internet.

Most importantly, ethical data strategies create transparent value exchanges where users clearly understand what benefits they receive in return for sharing information. This reciprocity transforms data collection from exploitation to fair exchange.

Measuring success ethically

Traditional marketing measurement often relies on individual-level tracking across sites and platforms. Ethical approaches require adapting these frameworks to respect privacy while still demonstrating impact.

Focusing on aggregate patterns rather than individual behaviour provides valuable insights without privacy invasions. For example, understanding that 30% of visitors to a specific page subsequently make purchases is actionable intelligence that doesn’t require tracking specific people.

Incrementality testing measures campaign impact by comparing outcomes between exposed and control groups at an aggregate level. This provides more accurate attribution than traditional last-click models while respecting privacy boundaries.

Server-side conversion tracking offers another ethical measurement approach, collecting necessary data on your servers rather than through client-side scripts vulnerable to blocking. This improves data accuracy while reducing reliance on cookies and browser storage.

Implementing ethical marketing strategies: A practical framework

1. Align marketing with brand values – Ensure campaigns reflect transparency and trust

2. Leverage first-party data – Collect insights directly from consumers with clear consent

3. Respect privacy and consent – Give users control over their data and clearly communicate its use

4. Create value-driven content – Offer educational and relevant resources instead of relying solely on advertising

5. Use privacy-compliant analytics – Switch to ethical platforms such as Matomo for responsible performance measurement

For a step-by-step guide to implementing ethical marketing strategies, download the full report here.

The future of ethical marketing

With the decline of third-party cookies and the rise of privacy regulations, ethical marketing is no longer optional. Brands that adopt privacy-first practices now will gain a sustainable competitive edge in the long term. The future of marketing belongs to brands that earn consumer trust, not those that exploit it.

Key trends shaping the future of marketing include:

• Privacy-first analytics to replace invasive tracking
• First-party and zero-party data strategies for direct consumer engagement
• Consent-driven personalisation to balance relevance and privacy
• Greater emphasis on corporate social responsibility in marketing initiatives

Companies that proactively address these changes will build stronger customer relationships, enhance brand reputation, and ensure long-term success.

Take the next step

Ready to transform your marketing approach for 2025 and beyond?

Download Matomo’s comprehensive “2025 Ethical Marketing Field Guide” to get practical frameworks, implementation strategies, and real-world case studies that will help you build trust while driving growth.

With detailed guidance on first-party data activation, consent-based personalisation techniques, and privacy-preserving analytics methods, this guide provides everything you need to future-proof your marketing strategy in a privacy-first world.

Download the ethical marketing guide now to start building stronger, more trusted relationships with your customers through ethical marketing practices.

Making Your First-Party Data Work for You and Your Customers 11 Mar 1:16 PM (20 days ago)

At last count, 162 countries had enacted data privacy policies of one kind or another. These laws or regulations, without exception, intend to eliminate the use of third-party data. That puts marketing under pressure because third-party data has been the foundation of online marketing efforts since the dawn of the Internet.

Marketers need to future-proof their operations by switching to first-party data. This will require considerable adjustment to systems and processes, but the reward will be effective marketing campaigns that satisfy privacy compliance requirements and bring the business closer to its customers.

To do that, you’ll need a coherent first-party data strategy. That’s what this article is all about. We’ll explain the different types of personal data and discuss how to use them in marketing without compromising or breaching data privacy regulations. We’ll also discuss how to build that strategy in your business. 

So, let’s dive in.

The different data types

There are four distinct types of personal data used in marketing, each subject to different data privacy regulations.

Before getting into the different types, it’s essential to understand that all four may comprise one or more of the following:

Identifying data	Name, email address, phone number, etc.
Behavioural data	Website activity, app usage, wishlist content, purchase history, etc.
Transactional data	Orders, payments, subscription details, etc.
Account data	Communication preferences, product interests, wish lists, etc.
Demographic data	Age, gender, income level, education, etc.
Geographic Data	Location-based information, such as zip codes or regional preferences.
Psychographic Data	Interests, hobbies and lifestyle preferences.

First-party data

When businesses communicate directly with customers, any data they exchange is first-party. It doesn’t matter how the interaction occurs: on the telephone, a website, a chat session, or even in person.

Of course, the parties involved aren’t necessarily individuals. They may be companies, but people within those businesses will probably share at least some of the data with colleagues. That’s fine, so long as the data: 

• Remains confidential between the original two parties involved, and 
• It is handled and stored following applicable data privacy regulations.

The core characteristic of first-party data is that it’s collected directly from customer interactions. This makes it reliable, accurate and inherently compliant with privacy regulations — assuming the collecting party complies with data privacy laws.

A great example of first-party data use is in banking. Data collected from customer interactions is used to provide personalised services, detect fraud, assess credit risk and improve customer retention.

Zero-party data

There’s also a subset of first-party data, sometimes called zero-party data. It’s what users intentionally and proactively share with a business. It can be preferences, intentions, personal information, survey responses, support tickets, etc.

What makes it different is that the collection of this data depends heavily on the user’s trust. Transparency is a critical factor, too; visitors expect to be informed about how you’ll use their data. Consumers also have the right to withdraw permission to use all or some of their information at any time.

Second-party data

This data is acquired from a separate organisation that collects it firsthand. Second-party data is someone else’s first-party data that’s later shared with or sold to other businesses. The key here is that whoever owns that data must give explicit consent and be informed of who businesses share their data with.

A good example is the cooperation between hotel chains, car rental companies, and airlines. They share joint customers’ flight data, hotel reservations, and car rental bookings, much like travel agents did before the internet undermined that business model.

Third-party data

This type of data is the arch-enemy of lawmakers and regulators trying to protect the personal data of citizens and residents in their country. It’s information collected by entities that have no direct relationship with the individuals whose data it is.

Third-party data is usually gathered, aggregated, and sold by data brokers or companies, often by using third-party cookies on popular websites. It’s an entire business model — these third-party brokers sell data for marketing, analytics, or research purposes. 

Most of the time, third-party data subjects are unaware that their data has been gathered and sold. Hence the need for strong data privacy regulations.

Benefits of a first-party data strategy

First-party data is reliable, accurate, and ethically sourced. It’s an essential part of any modern digital marketing strategy.

More personalised experiences

The most important application of first-party data is customising and personalising customers’ interactions based on real behaviours and preferences. Personalised experiences aren’t restricted to websites and can extend to all customer communication.

The result is company communications and marketing messages are far more relevant to customers. It allows businesses to engage more meaningfully with them, building trust and strengthening customer relationships. Inevitably, this also results in stronger customer loyalty and better customer retention.

Greater understanding of customers

Because first-party data is more accurate and reliable, it can be used to derive valuable insights into customer needs and wants. When all the disparate first-party data points are centralised and organised, it’s possible to uncover trends and patterns in customer behaviour that might not be apparent using other data.

This helps businesses predict and respond to customer needs. It also allows marketing teams to be more deliberate when segmenting customers and prospects into like-minded groups. The data can also be used to create more precise personas for future campaigns or reveal how likely a customer would be to purchase in response to a campaign.

Build trust with customers

First-party data is unique to a business and originates from interactions with customers. It’s also data collected with consent and is “owned” by the company — if you can ever own someone else’s data. If treated like the precious resource, it can help businesses build trust with customers.

However, developing that trust requires a transparent, step-by-step approach. This gradually strengthens relationships to the point where customers are more comfortable sharing the information they’re asked for.

However, while building trust is a long and sometimes arduous process, it can be lost in an instant. That’s why first-party data must be protected like the Crown Jewels.

Components of a first-party data strategy

Security is essential to any first-party data strategy, and for good reason. As Gartner puts it, a business must find the optimal balance between business outcomes and data risk mitigation. Once security is baked in, attention can turn to the different aspects of the strategy.

Data collection

There are many ways to collect first-party data ethically, within the law and while complying with data privacy regulations, such as Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Potential sources include:

Website activity	forms and surveys, behavioural tracking, cookies, tracking pixels and chatbots
Mobile app interactions	in-app analytics, push notifications and in-app forms
Email marketing	newsletter sign-ups, email engagement tracking, promotions, polls and surveys
Events	registrations, post-event surveys and virtual event analytics
Social media interaction	polls and surveys, direct messages and social media analytics
Previous transactions	purchase history, loyalty programmes and e-receipts
Customer service	call centre data, live chat, chatbots and feedback forms
In-person interactions	in-store purchases, customer feedback and Wi-Fi sign-ins
Gated content	whitepapers, ebooks, podcasts, webinars and video downloads
Interactive content	quizzes, assessments, calculators and free tools
CRM platforms	customer profiles and sales data
Consent management	privacy policies, consent forms, preference setting

Consent management

It may be the final item on the list above, but it’s also a key requirement of many data privacy laws and regulations. For example, the GDPR is very clear about consent: “Processing personal data is generally prohibited, unless it is expressly allowed by law, or the data subject has consented to the processing.”

For that reason, your first-party data strategy must incorporate various transparent consent mechanisms, such as cookie banners and opt-in forms. Crucially, you must provide customers with a mechanism to manage their preferences and revoke that consent easily if they wish to.

Data management

Effective first-party data management, mainly its security and storage, is critical. Most data privacy regimes restrict the transfer of personal data to other jurisdictions and even prohibit it in some instances. Many even specify where residents’ data must be stored.

Consider this cautionary tale: The single biggest fine levied for data privacy infringement so far was €1.2 billion. The Irish Data Protection Commission imposed a massive fine on Meta for transferring EU users’ data to the US without adequate data protection mechanisms.

Data security is critical. If first-party data is compromised, it becomes third-party data, and any customer trust developed with the business will evaporate. To add insult to injury, data regulators could come knocking. That’s why the trend is to use encryption and anonymisation techniques alongside standard access controls.

Once security is assured, the focus is on data management. Many businesses use a Customer Data Platform. This software gathers, combines and manages data from many sources to create a complete and central customer profile. Modern CRM systems can also do that job. AI tools could help find patterns and study them. But the most important thing is to keep databases clean and well-organised to make it easier to use and avoid data silos.

Data activation

Once first-party data has been collected and analysed, it needs to be activated, which means a business needs to use it for the intended purpose. This is the implementation phase where a well-constructed first-party strategy pays off. 

The activation stage is where businesses use the intelligence they gather to:

• Personalise website and app experiences
• Adapt marketing campaigns
• Improve conversion rates
• Match stated preferences
• Cater to observed behaviours
• Customise recommendations based on purchase history
• Create segmented email campaigns
• Improve retargeting efforts
• Develop more impactful content

Measurement and optimisation

Because first-party data is collected directly from customers or prospects, it’s far more relevant, reliable, and specific. Your analytics and campaign tracking will be more accurate. This gives you direct and actionable insights into your audience’s behaviour, empowering you to optimise your strategies and achieve better results.

The same goes for your collection and activation efforts. An advanced web analytics platform like Matomo lets you identify key user behaviour and optimise your tracking. Heatmaps, marketing attribution tools, user behaviour analytics and custom reports allow you to segment audiences for better traction (and collect even more first-party data).

How to build a first-party data strategy

There are five important and sequential steps to building a first-party data strategy. But this isn’t a one-time process. It must be revisited regularly as operating and regulatory environments change. There are five steps: 

1. Audit existing data

Chances are that customers already freely provide a lot of first-party data in the normal course of business. The first step is to locate this data, and the easiest way to do that is by mapping the customer journey. This identifies all the touchpoints where first-party data might be found.

2. Define objectives

Then, it’s time to step back and figure out the goals of the first-party data strategy. Consider what you’re trying to achieve. For example:

• Reduce churn 
• Expand an existing loyalty programme
• Unload excess inventory
• Improve customer experiences

Whatever the objectives are, they should be clear and measurable.

3. Implement tools and technology

The first two steps point to data gaps. Now, the focus turns to ethical web analytics with a tool like Matomo. 

To further comply with data privacy regulations, it may also be appropriate to implement a Consent Management Platform (CMP) to help manage preferences and consent choices.

4. Build trust with transparency

With the tools in place, it’s time to engage customers. To build trust, keep them informed about how their data is used and remind them of their right to withdraw their consent. 

Transparency is crucial in such engagement, as outlined in the 7 GDPR principles.

5. Continuously improve

Rinse and repeat. The one constant in business and life is change. As things change, they expose weaknesses or flaws in the logic behind systems and processes. That’s why a first-party data strategy needs to be continually reviewed, updated, and revised. It must adapt to changing trends, markets, regulations, etc. 

Tools that can help

Looking back at the different types of data, it’s clear that some are harder and more bothersome to get than others. But capturing behaviours and interactions can be easy — especially if you use tools that follow data privacy rules.

But here’s a tip. Google Analytics 4 isn’t compliant by default, especially not with Europe’s GDPR. It may also struggle to comply with some of the newer data privacy regulations planned by different US states and other countries.

Matomo Analytics is compliant with the GDPR and many other data privacy regulations worldwide. Because it’s open source, it can be integrated with any consent manager.

Get started today by trying Matomo for free for 21 days,
no credit card required.

Your Essential SOC 2 Compliance Checklist 11 Mar 1:14 PM (20 days ago)

With cloud-hosted applications becoming the norm, organisations face increasing data security and compliance challenges. SOC 2 (System and Organisation Controls 2) provides a structured framework for addressing these challenges. Established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), SOC 2 has become a critical standard for demonstrating trustworthiness to clients and partners.

A well-structured SOC 2 compliance checklist serves as your roadmap to successful audits and effective security practices. In this post, we’ll walk through the essential steps to achieve SOC 2 compliance and explain how proper analytics practices play a crucial role in maintaining this important certification.

What is SOC 2 compliance?

SOC 2 compliance applies to service organisations that handle sensitive customer data. While not mandatory, this certification builds significant trust with customers and partners.

According to the AICPA, “SOC 2 reports are intended to meet the needs of a broad range of users that need detailed information and assurance about the controls at a service organisation relevant to security, availability, and processing integrity of the systems the service organisation uses to process users’ data and the confidentiality and privacy of the information processed by these systems.“

At its core, SOC 2 helps organisations protect customer data through five fundamental principles: security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.

Think of it as a seal of approval that tells customers, “We take data protection seriously, and here’s the evidence.”

Companies undergo SOC 2 audits to evaluate their compliance with these standards. During these audits, independent auditors assess internal controls over data security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.

What is a SOC 2 compliance checklist?

A SOC 2 compliance checklist is a comprehensive guide that outlines all the necessary steps and controls an organisation needs to implement to achieve SOC 2 certification. It covers essential areas including:

• Security policies and procedures
• Access control measures
• Risk assessment protocols
• Incident response plans
• Disaster recovery procedures
• Vendor management practices
• Data encryption standards
• Network security controls

SOC 2 compliance checklist benefits

A structured SOC 2 compliance checklist offers several significant advantages:

Preparedness

Preparing for a SOC 2 examination involves many complex elements. A checklist provides a clear, structured path, breaking the process into manageable tasks that ensure nothing is overlooked.

Resource optimisation

A comprehensive checklist reduces time spent identifying requirements, minimises costly mistakes and oversights, and enables more precise budget planning for the compliance process.

Better team alignment

A SOC 2 checklist establishes clear responsibilities for team members and maintains consistent understanding across all departments, helping align internal processes with industry standards.

Risk reduction

Following a SOC 2 compliance checklist significantly reduces the risk of compliance violations. Systematically reviewing internal controls provides opportunities to catch security gaps early, mitigating the risk of data breaches and unauthorised access.

Audit readiness

A well-maintained checklist simplifies audit preparation, reduces stress during the audit process, and accelerates the certification timeline.

Business growth

A successful SOC 2 audit demonstrates your organisation’s commitment to data security, which can be decisive in winning new business, especially with enterprise clients who require this certification from their vendors.

Challenges in implementing SOC 2

Implementing SOC 2 presents several significant challenges:

Time-intensive documentation

Maintaining accurate records throughout the SOC 2 compliance process requires diligence and attention to detail. Many organisations struggle to compile comprehensive documentation of all controls, policies and procedures, leading to delays and increased costs.

Incorrect scoping of the audit

Misjudging the scope can result in unnecessary expenses and extended timelines. Including too many systems complicates the process and diverts resources from critical areas.

Maintaining ongoing compliance

After achieving initial compliance, continuous monitoring becomes essential but is often neglected. Regular internal control audits can be overwhelming, especially for smaller organisations without dedicated compliance teams.

Resource constraints

Many organisations lack sufficient resources to dedicate to compliance efforts. This limitation can lead to staff burnout or reliance on expensive external consultants.

Employee resistance

Staff members may view new security protocols as unnecessary hurdles. Employees who aren’t adequately trained on SOC 2 requirements might inadvertently compromise compliance efforts through improper data handling.

Analytics and SOC 2 compliance: A critical relationship

One often overlooked aspect of SOC 2 compliance is the handling of analytics data. User behaviour data collection directly impacts multiple Trust Service Criteria, particularly privacy and confidentiality.

Why analytics matters for SOC 2

Standard analytics platforms often collect significant amounts of personal data, creating potential compliance risks:

1. Privacy concerns: Many analytics tools collect personal information without proper consent mechanisms
2. Data ownership issues: When analytics data is processed on third-party servers, maintaining control becomes challenging
3. Confidentiality risks: Analytics data might be shared with advertising networks or other third parties
4. Processing integrity questions: When data is transformed or aggregated by third parties, verification becomes difficult

How Matomo supports SOC 2 compliance

Matomo’s privacy-first analytics approach directly addresses these concerns:

1. Complete data ownership: With Matomo, all analytics data remains under your control, either on your own servers or in a dedicated cloud instance
2. Consent management: Built-in tools for managing user consent align with privacy requirements
3. Data minimisation: Configurable anonymisation features help reduce collection of sensitive personal data
4. Transparency: Clear documentation of data flows supports audit requirements
5. Configurable data retention: Set automated data deletion schedules to comply with your policies

By implementing Matomo as part of your SOC 2 compliance strategy, you address key requirements while maintaining the valuable insights your organisation needs for growth.

Conclusion

A SOC 2 compliance checklist helps organisations meet critical security and privacy standards. By taking a methodical approach to compliance and implementing privacy-respecting analytics, you can build trust with customers while protecting sensitive data.

Start your 21-day free trial — no credit card needed.

A Guide to App Analytics Tools that Drive Growth 6 Mar 4:13 PM (25 days ago)

Data Privacy Regulations: Essential Knowledge for Global Business 6 Mar 9:00 AM (25 days ago)

If you run a website that collects visitors’ data, you might be violating privacy regulations somewhere in the world. At last count, over 160 countries have privacy laws — and your customers in those countries know about them.

A recent survey found that 53% of people who answered know about privacy rules in their country and want to follow them. This is up from 46% two years ago. Furthermore, customers increasingly want to buy from businesses they can trust with their data.

That’s why businesses must take data privacy seriously. In this article, we’ll first examine data privacy rules, why we need them, and how they are enforced worldwide. Finally, we’ll explore strategies to ensure compliance and tools that can help.

What are data privacy regulations?

Let’s first consider data privacy. What is it? The short answer is individuals’ ability to control their personal information. That’s why we need laws and rules to let people decide how their data is collected, used, and shared. Crucially, the laws empower individuals to withdraw permission to use their data anytime.

The UNCTAD reports that only 13 countries had data protection laws or rules before the 2000s. Many existed before businesses could offer online services, so they needed updating. Today, 162 national laws protect data privacy, half of which emerged in the last decade.

Why is this regulation necessary?

There are many reasons, but the impetus comes from consumers who want their governments to protect their data from exploitation. They understand that participating in the digital economy means sharing personal information like email addresses and telephone numbers, but they want to minimise the risks of doing so.

Data privacy regulation is essential for:

• Protecting personal information from exploitation with transparent rules and guidelines on handling it securely.
• Implementing adequate security measures to prevent data breaches.
• Enforcing accountability for how data is collected, stored and processed.
• Giving consumers control over their data.
• Controlling the flow of data across international borders in a way that fully complies with the regulations.
• Penalising companies that violate privacy laws.

Isn’t it just needless red tape?

Data breaches in recent years have been one of the biggest instigators of the increase in data privacy regulations. A list of the top ten data breaches illustrates the point.

#	Company	Location	Year	# of Records	Data Type
1	Yahoo	Global	2013	3B	user account information
2	Aadhaar	India	2018	1.1B	citizens’ ID/biometric data
2	Alibaba	China	2019	1.1B	users’ personal data
4	LinkedIn	Global	2021	700M	users’ personal data
5	Sina Weibo	China	2020	538M	users’ personal data
6	Facebook	Global	2019	533M	users’ personal data
7	Marriott Int’l	Global	2018	500M	customers’ personal data
8	Yahoo	Global	2014	500M	user account information
9	Adult Friend Finder	Global	2016	412.2M	user account information
10	MySpace	USA	2013	360M	user account information

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Between November 2005 and November 2015, the US-based Identity Theft Resource Center counted 5,754 data breaches that exposed 856,548,312 records, mainly in that country.

It’s no wonder that citizens worldwide want organisations they share their personal data with to protect that data as if it were their own. More specifically, they want their governments to:

• Protect their consumer rights
• Prevent identity theft and other consumer fraud
• Build trust between consumers and businesses
• Improve cybersecurity measures
• Promote ethical business practices
• Uphold international standards

Organisations using personal data in their operations want to minimise financial and reputational risk. That’s common sense, especially when external attacks cause 68% of data breaches.

The terminology of data privacy

With 162 national laws already in place, the legal space surrounding data privacy grows more complex every day. Michalsons has a list of different privacy laws and regulations in force in significant markets around the world.

Fortunately, there’s plenty of commonality for two reasons: first, all countries want to solve the same problem; second, those drafting the legislation have adopted much of what other countries have already developed. As a result, the terminology remains almost the same, even when the language changes.

These are the core concepts at play:

Term	Definition
Access and control	Consumers can access, review, edit and delete their data
Data protection	Organisations must protect data from being stolen or compromised
Consumer consent	Consumers can grant and withdraw or refuse access to their data
Deletion	Consumers can request to have their data erased
Data breach	When the security of data has been compromised
Data governance	The management of data within an organisation
Double opt-in	Two-factor authentication to add a layer of confirmation
GDPR	Governing data privacy in Europe since 2016
Personally identifiable information (PII)	Data used to identify, locate, or contact an individual
Pseudonymisation	Replace personal identifiers with artificial identifiers or pseudonyms
Publicly available information	Data from official sources, without restrictions on access or use
Rectification	Consumers can request to have errors in their data corrected

Overview of current data privacy legislation

Over three-quarters of the world has formulated and rolled out data privacy legislation — or is currently doing so. Here’s a breakdown of the laws and regulations you can expect to find in most significant markets worldwide.

Europe

Thoughts of protecting data privacy first occurred in Europe when the German government became concerned about automated data processing in 1970. A few years later, Sweden was the first country to enact a law requiring permits for processing personal data, establishing the first data protection authority.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Sweden’s efforts triggered a succession of European laws and regulations that culminated in the European Union (EU) GDPR, enacted in 2016 and enforced from 25 May 2018. It’s a detailed and comprehensive privacy law that safeguards the personal data and privacy of EU citizens.

The main objectives of GDPR are:

• Strengthening the privacy rights of individuals by empowering them to control their data.
• Establishing a uniform data framework for data privacy across the EU.
• Improving transparency and accountability by mandating businesses to handle personal data responsibly and fully disclose how they use it.
• Extending the regulation’s reach to organisations external to the EU that collect, store and process the data of EU residents.
• Requiring organisations to conduct Protection Impact Assessments (PIAs) for “high-risk” projects.

ePrivacy Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications (PECR)

The second pillar of the EU’s strategy to regulate the personal data of its citizens is the ePrivacy Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications (EU PECR). Together with the GDPR, it will comprise data protection law in the union. This regulation applies to:

• Providers of messaging services like WhatsApp, Facebook and Skype
• Website owners
• Owners of apps that have electronic communication components
• Commercial direct marketers
• Political parties sending promotional messages electronically
• Telecommunications companies
• ISPs and WiFi connection providers

The EU PECR was intended to commence with GDPR on 25 May 2018. That didn’t happen, and as of January 2025, it was in the process of being redrafted.

EU Data Act

One class of data isn’t covered by GDPR or PECR: internet product-generated data. The EU Data Act provides the regulatory framework to govern this data, and it applies to manufacturers, suppliers, and users of IoT devices or related services.

The intention is to facilitate data sharing, use, and reuse and to facilitate organisations’ switching to a different cloud service provider. The EU Data Act entered into force on 11 January 2024 and is applicable from September 2025.

GDPR UK

Before Brexit, the EU GDPR was in force in the UK. After Brexit in 2020, the UK opted to retain the regulations as UK GDPR but asserted independence to keep the framework under review. It’s part of a wider package of reform to the data protection environment that includes the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK PECR.

In the USA

The primary federal law regarding data privacy in the US is the Privacy Act of 1974, which has been in revision for some time. However, rather than wait for the outcome of that process, many business sectors and states have implemented their own measures.

Sector-specific data protection laws

This sectoral approach to data protection relies on a combination of legislation, regulation and self-regulation rather than governmental control. Since the mid-1990s, the country has allowed the private sector to lead on data protection, resulting in ad hoc legislation arising when circumstances require it. Examples include the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988, the Cable Television Protection and Competition Act of 1992 and the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)

California was the first state to act when federal privacy law development stalled. In 2018, it enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) to protect and enforce Californians’ rights regarding the privacy of their personal information. It came into force in 2020.

California Privacy Act (CPRA)

In November of that same year, California voters approved the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA). Billed as the strongest consumer privacy law ever enacted in the US, CPRA works with CCPA and adds the best elements of laws and regulations in other jurisdictions (Europe, Japan, Israel, New Zealand, Canada, etc.) into California’s personal data protection regime.

Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (CDPA)

In March 2021, Virginia became the next US state to implement privacy legislation. The Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA), which is also informed by global legislative developments, tries to strike a balance between consumer privacy protections and business interests. It governs how businesses collect, use, and share consumer data.

Colorado Privacy Act (CPA)

Developed around the same time as VCDPA, the Colorado Privacy Act (CPA) was informed by that law and GDPR and CCPA. Signed into law in July 2021, the CPA gives Colorado residents more control over their data and establishes guidelines for businesses on handling the data.

Other states generally

Soon after, additional states followed suit and, similar to Colorado, examined existing legislation to inform the development of their own data privacy laws and regulations. At the time of writing, the states with data privacy laws at various stages of development were Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Montana, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah.

By the time you read this article, more states may be doing it, and the efforts of some may have led to laws and regulations coming into force. If you’re already doing business or planning to do business in the US, you should do your own research on the home states of your customers.

Globally

Beyond Europe and the US, other countries are also implementing privacy regulations. Some were well ahead of the trend. For example, Chile’s Law on the Protection of Private Life was put on the books in 1999, while Mauritius enacted its first Data Protection Act in 2004 — a second one came along in 2017 to replace it.

Canada

The regulatory landscape around data privacy in Canada is as complicated as it is in the US. At a federal government level, there are two laws: The Privacy Act for public sector institutions and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) for the private sector.

PIPEDA is the one to consider here. Like all other data privacy policies, it provides a framework for organisations handling consumers’ personal data in Canada. Although not quite up to GDPR standard, there are moves afoot to close that gap.

The Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022 (aka Bill C-27) is proposed legislation introduced by federal agencies in June 2022. It’s intended to align Canada’s privacy framework with global standards, such as GDPR, and address emerging digital economy challenges. It may or may not have been finalised when you read this.

At the provincial level, three of Canada’s provinces—Alberta, British Columbia, and Quebec—have introduced laws and regulations of their own. Their rationale was similar to that of Bill C-27, so they may become redundant if and when that bill passes.

Japan

Until recently, Japan’s Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI) was considered by many to be the most comprehensive data protection law in Asia. Initially introduced in 2003, it was significantly amended in 2020 to align with global privacy standards, such as GDPR.

APPI sets out unambiguous rules for how businesses and organisations collect, use, and protect personal information. It also sets conditions for transferring the personal information of Japanese residents outside of Japan.

China

The new, at least for now, most comprehensive data privacy law in Asia is China’s Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL). It’s part of the country’s rapidly evolving data governance framework, alongside the Cybersecurity Law and the Data Security Law.

PIPL came into effect in November 2021 and was informed by GDPR and Japan’s APPI, among others. The data protection regime establishes a framework for protecting personal information and imposes significant compliance obligations on businesses operating in China or targeting consumers in that country.

Other countries

Many other nations have already brought in legislation and regulations or are in the process of developing them. As mentioned earlier, there are 162 of them at this point, and they include:

Argentina	Costa Rica	Paraguay
Australia	Ecuador	Peru
Bahrain	Hong Kong	Saudi Arabia
Bermuda	Israel	Singapore
Brazil	Mauritius	South Africa
Chile	Mexico	UAE
Colombia	New Zealand	Uruguay

Observant readers might have noticed that only two countries in Africa are on that list. More than half of the 55 countries on the continent have or are working on data privacy legislation.

It’s a complex landscape

Building a globalised business model has become very complicated, with so much legislation already in play and more coming. What you must do depends on the countries you plan to operate in or target. And that’s before you consider the agreements groups of countries have entered into to ease the flow of personal data between them.

In this regard, the EU-US relationship is instructive. When GDPR came into force in 2016, so did the EU-US Privacy Shield. However, about four years later, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) invalidated it. The court ruled that the Privacy Shield didn’t adequately protect personal data transferred from the EU to the US.

The ruling was based on US laws that allow excessive government surveillance of personal data transferred to the US. The CJEU found that this conflicted with the basic rights of EU citizens under the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights.

A replacement was negotiated in a new mechanism: the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. However, legal challenges are expected, and its long-term viability is uncertain. The APEC Privacy Framework and the OECD Privacy Framework, both involving the US, also exist.

Penalties for non-compliance

Whichever way you look at it, consumer data privacy laws and regulations make sense. But what’s really interesting is that many of them have real teeth to punish offenders. GDPR is a great example. It was largely an EU concern until January 2022 when the French data protection regulator hit Google and Facebook with serious fines and criminal penalties.

Google was fined €150M, and Facebook was told to pay €60M for failing to allow French users to reject cookie tracking technology easily. That started a tsunami of ever-larger fines.

The largest so far was the €1.2B fine levied by the Irish Data Protection Commission on Meta, the owner of Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp. It was issued for transferring European users’ personal data to the US without adequate data protection mechanisms. This significant penalty demonstrated the serious financial implications of non-compliance.

These penalties follow a structured approach rather than arbitrary determinations. The GDPR defines an unambiguous framework for fines. They can be up to 4% of a company’s total global turnover in the previous fiscal year. That’s a serious business threat.

What should you do?

For businesses committed to long-term success, accepting and adapting to regulatory requirements is essential. Data privacy regulations and protection impact assessments are here to stay, with many national governments implementing similar frameworks.

However, there is some good news. As you’ve seen, many of these laws and regulations were informed by GDPR or retrospectively aligned. That’s a good place to start. Choose tools to handle your customer’s data that are natively GDPR-compliant.

For example, web analytics is all about data, and a lot of that data is personal. And if, like many people, you use Google Analytics 4, you’re already in trouble because it’s not GDPR-compliant by default. And achieving compliance requires significant additional configuration.

A better option would be to choose a web analytics platform that is compliant with GDPR right off the bat. Something like Matomo would do the trick. Then, complying with any of the tweaks individual countries have made to the basic GDPR framework will be a lot easier—and may even be handled for you.

Privacy-centric data strategies

Effective website data analysis is essential for business success. It enables organisations to understand customer needs and improve service delivery.

But that data doesn’t necessarily need to be tied to their identity — and that’s at the root of many of these regulations.

It’s not to stop companies from collecting data but to encourage and enforce responsible and ethical handling of that data. Without an official privacy policy or ethical data collection practices, the temptation for some to use and abuse that data for financial gain seems too great to resist.

Cookie usage and compliance

There was a time when cookies were the only way to collect reliable information about your customers and prospects. But under GDPR, and in many countries that based or aligned their laws with GDPR, businesses have to give users an easy way to opt out of all tracking, particularly tracking cookies.

So, how do you collect the information you need without cookies? Easy. You use a web analytics platform that doesn’t depend wholly on cookies. For example, in certain countries and when configured for maximum privacy, Matomo allows for cookieless operation. It can also help you manage the cookie consent requirements of various data privacy regulations.

Choose the right tools

Data privacy regulations have become a permanent feature of the global business landscape. As digital commerce continues to expand, these regulatory frameworks will only become more established. Fortunately, there is a practical approach forward.

As mentioned several times, GDPR is considered by many countries to be a particularly good example of effective data privacy regulation. For that reason, many of them model their own legislation on the EU’s effort, making a few tweaks here and there to satisfy local requirements or anomalies.

As a result, if you comply with GDPR, the chances are that you’ll also comply with many of the other data privacy regulations discussed here. That also means that you can select tools for your data harvesting and analytics that comply with the GDPR out of the box, so to speak. Tools like Matomo.

Matomo lets website visitors retain full control over their data.

Before deciding whether to go with Matomo On-premise or the EU-hosted cloud version, why not start your 21-day free trial? No credit card required.

How to Check Website Traffic: A Complete Guide 25 Feb 4:10 PM (last month)

If you want to learn about the health of your website and the success of your digital marketing initiatives, there are few better ways than checking your website traffic.

Checking website traffic is a great way to get a dopamine hit when things are up. And it’s a great way to troubleshoot problems when things go down. It’s also a critical data source for marketing and web teams. But to get the most out of it, you need reliable data sources, the ability to track them over time and a way to monitor the competition.

This article explains how to check website traffic (for your site and your competitors), explores nine tools that can help and discusses why some methods are better than others.

Why check website traffic?

Dopamine hits aside, monitoring website traffic is crucial to a business — even for a primarily brick-and-mortar operation. In this internet age, customers and prospects are far more likely to research a company online before buying anything.

SOCi’s 2024 Consumer Behavior Index found that 8 in 10 US consumers use the internet to search for local businesses at least once a week. And Statista found that 55% of UK shoppers always do some online research before making a major purchase.

And trend lines suggest these numbers are likely to continue climbing. Businesses need to know what’s happening on their sites, and that’s difficult to achieve without traffic data.

Indeed, website data allows companies to better understand their target audiences, measure the effectiveness of marketing efforts and channels, and identify areas of the website that need work.

Let’s dig into those ideas in a little more detail.

Benchmark site performance

Keeping regular tabs on traffic levels is a great way to track a website’s performance over time. It can help with planning for the future and identifying current problems.

For instance, rising traffic levels may mean expanding the business’s offering or investing in more inventory. On the flip side, decreasing traffic levels may suggest it’s time to revamp marketing strategies or look into issues impacting SEO.

Analyse user behaviour

Checking website traffic, user behaviour, and other metrics shows marketing managers how users interact with the website. These traffic stats can help answer questions like:

• Which pages are users visiting?
• Which CTAs are they clicking on?
• Which page elements encourage users to take the desired actions?

It can also identify issues contributing to high bounce rates or declines in search rankings.

The better user behaviour is understood, the easier it is to give visitors what they want. For example, the data could reveal that users spend more time on landing pages than blogs. These valuable insights can be used to optimise blog content and improve performance.

Improve the user experience

Once user behaviour is well understood, it’s easier to make adjustments, update content and improve the overall user experience. This also allows companies to create more personalised customer experiences, which can lead to growth. Research shows companies that get personalisation right generate 40% more revenue from those activities than average players.

That could take the form of sweeping changes like rearranging a website’s navigation bar based on user behaviour. It could also be personalisation that uses analytics to transform sections or entire pages based on individual user behaviour.

Optimise digital marketing strategies

Knowing current traffic levels and how they trend over time helps teams set benchmarks and prioritise marketing efforts.

Monthly traffic reports can inform SEO efforts and benefit marketing attribution. For example, they could indicate when the time is right to double down on organic traffic or when the better strategy would be to invest more in PPC advertising.

Increasing organic traffic levels from other countries can help businesses identify new marketing opportunities. If traffic levels from a neighbouring country or a growing market increase significantly, it could be time for a cross-border campaign.

Filter unwanted traffic

A significant chunk of every website’s traffic comes from bots and other unwanted sources. This can compromise the quality of website data and make it harder to draw useful insights. While it’s nearly impossible to get rid of this traffic completely, many analytics tools have features to filter it out of the stats.

Why check competitors’ website traffic

Websites are windows into businesses and their strategies. That’s why monitoring traffic and other metrics drawn from competitors is essential.

There’s a lot to learn from the competition, both good and bad. What competitors do well can be replicated, and learning from the elements they get wrong can help you avoid making the same mistakes.

• Strategic planning: Looking at traffic on specific pages can offer insight into potential marketing campaigns and highlight gaps in the market that may be worth attacking. Looking at their organic, paid, social and referral traffic levels can highlight opportunities for growth or pinpoint the reasons for success in a particular area.
• Benchmarking: Looking at website traffic in isolation can lack context. Monitoring other sites’ engagement metrics, like bounce rate and average session duration, can give you an inside look at the competition, which can help you set realistic performance goals and benchmarks.
• Product Development: Significant traffic volume on certain pages can indicate shifts in demand and market trends, which may inform the development of new products or services. For example, if a competitive dog food supplier ranks well for the term “organic dog food”, that might be something to consider when formulating new products.
• Audience demographics: Comparing audience demographics between competitors can highlight opportunities and help a business narrow down its target audience. This guides messaging and campaign strategies to capture specific audience segments.
• Keyword opportunities: Examining the keywords driving the most traffic to a competitor’s website can help you uncover untapped SEO potential for your website. Analysing top-performing content on competing sites can help identify content improvement strategies to pull traffic away from competitors.
• Partnerships: Referrals are an often overlooked traffic metric. High volumes of such traffic indicate successful partnerships between competitors and third parties, which is a model worth emulating.

7 key website traffic metrics to track

Traffic metrics are not a case of one-size-fits-all. Those that are important today may not be tomorrow. It all depends on the priorities and goals at any one moment. That said, there are a few traffic metrics that always matter to some degree.

• New visitors: These are users who have never visited the website before. They are a great sign that marketing efforts are working and the website is reaching more people. But it’s also important to track how they behave on the website to ensure the site caters effectively to the needs of new visitors.
• Returning visitors: Returning visitors are coming back to the website for a reason: either they like the content they find or want to buy something. Either way, it’s excellent news. The more returning visitors, the better.
• Bounce rate: This measures how many users leave the website without taking action. Different analytics tools measure this metric differently.
• Session duration: This is the time users spend on the website, which can reveal whether they find the site engaging. And when considered alongside the next metric, it can be especially insightful.
• Pages per session: This measures the average number of pages users visit on a website. The more pages they visit and the longer users spend on the website, the more engaging it is.
• Traffic source: Traffic can come from various sources (organic, direct, social media, referral, etc.). Knowing the highest sources of referral traffic can help analyse and prioritise marketing efforts.
• User demographics: This shows who visits a website, what device they use, what country they come from, etc. While most website traffic will come from the countries targeted by marketing, an influx of new users from other countries can open the door to new opportunities.

9 tools to check website traffic

There are thousands of different web analytics tools that can provide decent website traffic analysis and functionality checks. They all use a similar combination of sophisticated algorithms, data collection techniques, statistical analysis and machine learning to deliver insights into visitor behaviour and site performance.

Most web analytics tools work by embedding bits of JavaScript or other tracking codes into a website. When users land on a website, it gathers data such as page views, session duration, and specific interactions. Many also use cookies to identify returning visitors, which lets them monitor user behaviour over time.

Many tools offer advanced event-tracking functionality. This captures specific actions, like clicks or form submissions, and provides a more granular view of engagement. The data is then statistically analysed to spot trends and calculate key metrics like bounce rates and conversion rates.

Some web analytics tools use machine learning to predict future user behaviour based on historical patterns. Others aggregate data to provide insights via charts comparing website performance with selected competitors’ websites.

This section explores nine popular tools for checking website traffic and highlights their unique features and benefits.

1. Checking website traffic with Google Analytics

Google Analytics is usually the first place to start for anyone looking to check their website traffic. It’s free to use, incredibly popular and offers a wide range of traffic reports.

It breaks down historical traffic data in many different ways. It can split traffic by acquisition channel (organic, social media, direct, etc.), by country, device or demographic. It also provides real-time traffic reports that offer a snapshot of users on the site right now and over the last 30 minutes.

Google Analytics may be one of the most popular ways to check website traffic, but it could be better. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is difficult to use compared to its predecessor, and it also imposes data tracking limits in accordance with privacy laws. If users refuse cookie consent, Google Analytics won’t record those visits. In other words, using Google Analytics alone doesn’t provide a complete view of the traffic.

Also, GA4 relies on sampling when processing large datasets or complex queries. When the volume of data exceeds certain thresholds, it only considers a subset of the data to generate reports instead of processing every single data point.

There are pros and cons to this approach. While it speeds up analysis and reduces the load on the system, it can also lead to inaccuracies in insights delivered. When analysing traffic patterns over a busy period, GA4 may only use a portion of the data to calculate and then extrapolate metrics.

As a result, trends or anomalies might be overlooked or misconstrued, which could mean missed opportunities or poor decisions. That’s why it’s important to use Google Analytics alongside other web analytics tools (like Matomo) that don’t suffer from the same privacy issues. That way, it’s possible to track every single user who visits the website.

2. Checking website traffic with Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a free tool that analyses a website’s Google search traffic. The top-line report shows how many times the website has appeared in Google Search, how many clicks it has received, the average clickthrough rate and its average position in the search results.

It’s a great way to understand what the website ranks for and how much traffic organic rankings generate. It will also show which pages are indexed in Google and whether there are any crawling errors.

Unfortunately, Google Search Console is limited if a complete view of traffic is needed. While the search traffic can be analysed in great detail, it will not report how users who access the website behave on it.

3. Checking website traffic with Similarweb

Similarweb is a website analysis tool that estimates the total traffic of any site on the internet. It is one of the best traffic checker tools for estimating how much web traffic competitors receive.

What’s great about Similarweb is that it estimates total traffic, not just traffic from search engines like many SEO tools. It even breaks down traffic by different channels for easy comparison.

Similarweb provides an estimate of total visits, bounce rate, the average number of pages users view per visit and the average duration on the site. The company also has a free browser extension that continues checking website traffic estimates while the user is browsing the web.

Similarweb is free to use, up to a point. However, to get the most out of this tool, you must upgrade to the premium plan, which starts at $125 per user per month.

The price isn’t Similarweb’s only downside. Ultimately, it provides reasonably accurate estimates but is no match for a comprehensive traffic analytics tool.

4. Checking website traffic with Semrush

Semrush is a collection of marketing solutions for online businesses. Its Traffic Analytics tool checks the website traffic of up to 100 sites and compares that data side-by-side. For each site, it reveals the top pages, the regions from which most of the traffic comes, and the locations from which the most referrals come.

Semrush also gathers insights into competitors’ audiences and their activity, especially activity that overlaps between the sites being checked. It extracts and analyses comprehensive data on organic and paid search, social media, and backlinks.

However, there are notable downsides. Semrush can be pricey, with plans starting at about $119.95 per month or $1,199.40 annually. This cost may be prohibitive for smaller businesses or freelancers. Still, a free version offers most of the functionality but with a limited number of daily reports.

5. Checking website traffic with Ahrefs

Ahrefs‘s biggest strength is its organic traffic estimation capabilities. It estimates monthly visits from Google worldwide, Google keywords in the top 100 that a website ranks for, and traffic value via equivalence to PPC.

Ahrefs bases its estimates on ranking data from a database of 12 billion keywords, which is why it is so powerful. It generates a detailed report that includes organic traffic estimates, backlink data, and top-performing keywords.

However, the numbers produced by Ahrefs are estimates based on the available data and won’t always be 100% accurate. This is particularly true for smaller or newer websites that lack the data volumes needed for accuracy.

It’s a great SEO marketing tool that’s free to use within certain limits, but there is some value in registering for a paid plan. There are several options, beginning with the $129 per month Lite plan and extending to the Enterprise Plan for $1,499 monthly.

6. Checking website traffic with Serpstat

Serpstat is an SEO solution that grew from a simple keyword research tool. It offers more comprehensive features to help businesses understand their website’s performance. It helps improve a site’s visibility through tools for rank tracking, keyword research, traffic checking, backlink analysis, and site auditing.

It provides metrics like estimated monthly visits, traffic sources (organic, paid, and referral), and insights into top-performing pages. Serpstat also offers competitor analysis features that help to identify market trends and refine growth strategies. However, like Ahrefs, the numbers provided are estimates, which are only as good as the depth of data from which they are derived.

The free version is fine for basic analysis, but signing up for one of the paid plans is advisable for commercial use. Pricing ranges from $59 per month to a monthly fee of $479 for the Agency plan. There is an option to pay annually at a discount.

7. Checking website traffic with SEO PowerSuite

SEO PowerSuite also goes some distance beyond just website traffic checking. As the name implies, it’s a suite of tools to improve website rankings.

There are four tools in the suite:

• Rank Tracker enables tracking a website’s search engine rankings across multiple keywords and search engines.
• WebSite Auditor offers SEO analysis of website pages and recommends actions to boost performance.
• SEO SpyGlass analyses a website’s backlink profile to highlight link-building possibilities that’d help improve performance.
• LinkAssistant helps identify websites suitable for link-building and recommends viable outreach opportunities.

SEO PowerSuite has a free plan and two premium plans with varying functionality. The monthly cost could be as much as $139.67, depending on the features needed. Annual pricing options are also available.

8. Checking website traffic with Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest is also an SEO-focused tool. It offers website traffic analysis, keyword rankings, backlink profiles, and competitor insights. These are packaged in reports that provide an overview of website traffic, including monthly organic traffic totals and the number of organic keywords the site ranks for. Ubersuggest also offers content suggestions.

Like other tools in this category, Ubersuggest doesn’t collect comprehensive data, so its numbers are estimates. This means the accuracy can vary. However, it remains a solid choice for providing great insights and enhancing a website’s online presence.

Like many tools in this category, there is a free version to give potential customers a taste, which is restricted by volume more than features. The paid plans range from around $29 per month for one website on the individual plan to about $99 per month for 8-15 websites on the Enterprise plan. Discounted annual pricing is also an option.

9. Checking website traffic with MonsterInsights

MonsterInsights is a tool worth considering for websites built on WordPress because it’s not a website checking tool in the usual sense. It’s a WordPress plugin that simplifies the task by integrating Google Analytics directly into a website.

MonsterInsights then uses the raw data provided by GA4 to extract actionable insights based on audience preferences and activity. This makes it easier to focus on the relevant metrics for different types of websites. For example, the metrics used to measure a blog site would not be the same as those for an ecommerce site.

But there are some downsides, too. While the basic version is free, it has limited features, and the most potent functionality requires a premium subscription. Those start at $249 per year for a single site, or the Pro plan at $499 for up to five sites. Agencies looking to work with up to 25 sites are in for $999.

There’s another option

Although many of these tools have free versions, those tend to be heavily restricted, and premium plans can be expensive. A website has to generate serious revenue to deliver a decent return on investment (ROI) to justify the costs.

As more countries adopt GDPR-like privacy regulations, brands must ensure they’re using compliant, privacy-centric analytics tools.

Matomo Analytics is one such tool. It’s an ethical, open-source solution that helps you collect accurate data about your website’s traffic and make more informed decisions. This enhances the customer experience and ensures GDPR compliance and user privacy.

It’s completely free to install as an on-premise solution. Alternatively, there’s the subscription-based Matomo Cloud version.

How to check website traffic on Matomo

Apart from a better ROI picture, Matomo offers a more reliable assessment of your website’s traffic than Google Analytics 4. It also provides multiple ways to check organic search traffic:

• Visits log report
• Real-time visitor map
• Visits in real-time report

Let’s look at all of them one by one.

The visits log report is a unique rundown of your site’s visitors. It offers a much more granular view than other traffic checker tools, which only show the total number of visitors for a given period.

You can access the visits log report by clicking on the reporting menu and then clicking Visitor and Visits Log. From there, you’ll be able to scroll through every user session and see the following information:

• The location of the user
• The total number of actions they took
• The length of time on site
• How they arrived at your site
• The device they used to access your site

It may be overwhelming if your site receives thousands of visitors at a time. But it’s a great way to understand users at an individual level and appreciate the lifetime activity of specific users.

The Real-time visitor map shows site visitors’ location for a given timeframe. If you have an international website, it’s a fantastic way to see exactly where your traffic comes from.

You can access the Real-time Visitor Map by clicking Visitor in the main navigation menu and then Real-time Map. The map itself is colour-coded. Larger orange bubbles represent recent visits, and smaller dark orange and grey bubbles represent older visits. The map will refresh every five seconds, and new users appear with a flashing effect.

If you run TV or radio adverts, Matomo’s Real-time Map provides an immediate read on the effectiveness of your campaign. If your map lights up in the minutes following your ad, you know it’s been effective. It can also help you identify the source of bot attacks, too.

Finally, the Visits in Real-time report provides a snapshot of who is browsing your website. You can access this report under Visitors > Real-time and add it to your custom dashboards as a widget.

Open the report, and you’ll see the real-time flow of your site’s users and counters for visits and pageviews over the last 30 minutes and 24 hours. The report refreshes every five seconds with new users added to the top of the report with a fade-in effect.

The report provides a snapshot of each visitor, including:

• Whether they are new or returning
• Their country
• Their browser
• Their operating system
• The number of actions they took
• The time they spent on the site
• The channel they came in from
• Whether the visitor converted a goal

Why do my traffic reports differ?

If you use more than one of the methods above to check your website traffic, you’ll quickly realise that every traffic report differs. In some cases, the reasons are obvious. Any tool that estimates your traffic without adding code to your website is just that: an estimate. Tools like many of those mentioned here will never offer the accuracy of analytics platforms like Matomo and Google Analytics.

But what about the differences between these analytics platforms themselves? While each platform records user behaviour differently, significant differences in website traffic reports between analytics platforms are usually due to how each platform handles user privacy.

A platform like Google Analytics requires users to accept a cookie consent banner to track them. If they accept, great. Google collects all of the data that any other analytics platform does. It may even collect more. However, if users reject cookie consent banners, Google Analytics can’t track them. They simply won’t show up in your traffic reports.

That doesn’t happen with all analytics platforms, however. A privacy-focused alternative like Matomo doesn’t require cookie consent banners (apart from in the United Kingdom and Germany). Therefore, it can continue to track visitors even after they have rejected a cookie consent screen from Google Analytics. This means virtually all website traffic will be tracked regardless of whether users accept a cookie consent banner. And it’s why traffic reports in Matomo are often much higher than in Google Analytics.

Around half (47.32%) of adults in the European Union refuse to allow personal data tracking for advertising purposes, and 95% of people will reject additional cookies when it is easy to do so. So relying on cookies limits your results — and causes you to miss out on valuable user data.

If you’re serious about using web analytics to improve your website and optimise your marketing campaigns, then it is essential to use another analytics platform alongside Google Analytics.

What to do if website traffic levels drop

Experiencing a drop in website traffic can be frustrating, but it happens to everyone at some point. Here’s how to address it:

• Analyse traffic sources: Use analytics tools to pinpoint where the decline is coming from—organic search, referrals, or social media.
• Check for technical issues: Look for broken links or slow loading times, which can deter visitors. Tools like Google Search Console can help identify errors.
• Review recent changes: Consider any recent updates to the website. If something coincided with the drop, it might be worth reverting.
• Evaluate content quality: Ensure the content is engaging and relevant. Update or improve underperforming posts.
• Reassess the marketing strategy: The only constant in marketing is change. It’s wise to periodically revisit the balance between paid ads, social media and other vectors to evaluate their effectiveness and adjust the approach.

It’s perfectly normal for website traffic volumes to fluctuate. Expect it and work with the available tools. Persistence will likely see the traffic volumes rebound.

Get more accurate traffic reports with Matomo

There are several methods to check website traffic. Some can provide estimates on your competitors’ traffic levels. Others, like Google Analytics, are free. But data doesn’t lie. Only privacy-focused analytics solutions like Matomo can provide accurate reports that account for every visitor.

Join over one million organisations using Matomo to check their website traffic accurately and ethically.

Try Matomo for Free

Start your 21-day free trial — no credit card required.

Enhanced Privacy Control: Matomo’s Guide for Consent Manager Platform Integrations 13 Feb 10:57 AM (last month)

In today’s digital landscape, protecting user privacy isn’t just about compliance—it’s about building trust and demonstrating respect for user choices. Even though you can use Matomo without requiring consent when properly configured in compliance with privacy regulations, we’re excited to introduce a new Consent Manager Platforms (CMP) category on our Integrations page to make it easier than ever to implement privacy-respecting analytics.

What’s a consent manager platform?

A Consent Management Platform (CMP) is a tool that helps websites collect, manage, and store user consent for data tracking and cookies in compliance with privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA. A CMP allows users to choose which types of data they want to share, ensuring transparency and respecting their privacy preferences. By integrating a CMP with Matomo, organisations can make sure that analytics tracking occurs only after obtaining explicit user consent.

Remember, you can configure Matomo to remain fully GDPR compliant, without requiring user consent.

Why consent management matters

With privacy regulations reshaping data collection practices daily, organisations need to ensure that analytics data is gathered only after users have explicitly given their consent. Integrating Matomo with a Consent Management Platform helps you:

• Strengthen regulatory compliance
• Enhance user trust through transparency
• Clearly document consent choices
• Simplify privacy management

By making consent management seamless, you can maintain compliance while delivering a privacy-first experience to your users.

Introducing our CMP integration options

We’ve carefully curated integrations with leading Consent Management Platforms that work seamlessly with Matomo Analytics and Matomo Tag Manager. Our supported platforms include:

Supported consent management platforms

• Osano – Comprehensive consent management with global regulation support
• Cookiebot – Advanced cookie consent and compliance automation
• CookieYes – User-friendly consent management solution
• Tarte au Citron – Open-source consent management tool
• Klaro – Privacy-focused consent management system
• OneTrust – Enterprise-grade privacy management platform
• Complianz for WordPress – Specialised WordPress consent solution

Each platform provides unique features and compliance options, allowing you to select the best fit for your privacy needs.

Getting started with simplified implementation

Ready to enhance your privacy compliance? We’ve made the integration process straightforward, so you can set up a privacy-compliant analytics environment in just a few steps. Here’s how to begin:

1. Explore our new CMP category on the Integrations page
2. Select and implement the CMP that best suits your needs
3. Check our implementation guides for step-by-step instructions
4. Configure your consent management settings in Matomo
5. Start collecting analytics data with proper consent management

Moving Forward

As privacy regulations evolve and user expectations around data protection grow, proper consent management is more important than ever. With Matomo’s new CMP integrations, you can ensure compliance while maintaining full control over your analytics data.

Visit our Integrations page and our Implementation guides today to explore these privacy-enhancing solutions and take the next step in your privacy-first analytics journey.

Introducing the BigQuery & Data Warehouse Export feature  29 Jan 4:22 PM (2 months ago)