At Matomo (Piwik) we have developed a new plugin named AnonymousPiwikUsageMeasurement. The opt-in and anonymised usage tracking information will be used by us to build a better product and a great user experience. The plugin can be installed via the Matomo Marketplace with just a few clicks in your Matomo installation. As a Super User simply go to the Administration and select Marketplace in the left menu. There you will find the plugin and can install it with just one click.
The plugin allows you to track usage data into up to two Matomo installations:
- your own Matomo (can be configured optionally)
- a custom Matomo (can be configured optionally)
What are the advantages by tracking the data into my own installation?
You can see how your Matomo installation is used and how well your Matomo performs by checking the average generation time of pages and API calls. Use the Row Evolution feature to see how your Matomo is performing over time.
What is Matomo doing to make sure the data is anonymized?
We are very careful in what we track and we make sure to anonymize data that could contain user data.
- We overwrite the page title as the title could contain the name of the viewed website
- We remove any referrer information
- We replace URL paramaters with a predefined value apart from a few whitelisted ones to make sure no actual
token_auth,CSRF tokenor user defined value will be tracked - We do not track clicks on outlinks or downloads
When should I not install this plugin?
If you have developed a custom Matomo plugin that contains for example the name of your business in any of the following names we recommend to not install this plugin as it might be tracked:
- name of a plugin
- name of a controller action
- name of a report
- name of a widget
- name of an API method
Plugins that are installed via the Marketplace should not pose a problem as their names don’t contain any user specific information such as the name of your business.
The data is tracked as efficiently as possible as to not slow down your Matomo server. If you already have some performance challenges with your Matomo, we recommend not to install this plugin.
Which data is tracked?
When the plugin is activated, the following data will be tracked:
- The pages and reports that are viewed
- The visitors’ software and devices data like the used browser and the resolution
- Some clicks or interactions with certain selectors or buttons. For example we track an event when a segment is selected (but we do not track the actual segment name or value).
- In a daily task we track the following data:
- Matomo version
- PHP version
- Number of websites
- Number of users
- Number of segments
- How often which API method was called (only plugin name and method name but no parameters) and how long the API calls took on average.
Are there any prerequisites?
- If sending usage data to Matomo is enabled, the Matomo installation must be connected to the internet
- If tracking to a custom Matomo installation is enabled, your Matomo installation and your Matomo users must be able to connect to this instance
Where can I report any issues with the plugin?
If you experience any issues with the plugin please create a new issue. The source code is available under GPL v3+ on GitHub. We always appreciate pull requests and suggestions to improve this plugin.
