What is the ‘anonymous user’ in Matomo?

By default, report data and all information in your Matomo server are protected, and access requires a valid user account.

However, if you want to make Matomo report data public and viewable by anyone, such as for an NGO or an open-source project, you can enable public access using an anonymous user. When Matomo analytics data is public, anyone with a link to your Matomo instance will have View access to reports for the ID Sites that have anonymous access enabled.

Enable the anonymous user

Only a Matomo Admin or Super User can grant the View permission to the anonymous user.

  1. To enable general access to reports for a specific website, navigate to Matomo settings Settings Cog Icon > System > Users > Manage access.
  2. Choose the website you want to grant view access to.
  3. In the drop-down, select View for the anonymous user.
  4. To revoke view access, select the No access option.
  5. You can customise additional settings for the anonymous user in System > Anonymous user.

Note: When an anonymous user (not signed in) visits your Matomo dashboard, we do our best to protect privacy and hide from display any Personally Identifiable Information (PII):

  • Visitor Profile feature is disabled for the anonymous user.
  • The Visitor IP address and the Visitor ID are not displayed in the UI or API responses for the anonymous user.