Setup Matomo on Uberspace with GDPR Compliance

uberspace-matomo.md

Setup Matomo on Uberspace with GDPR Compliance

About

These are my setup notes for my personal Matomo installation on my Uberspace at analytics.simbo.de.

I just wanted some statistics to get an idea of what's up on my private web projects while respecting the privacy of my visitors. Regarding this simple goal, this whole approach seems a bit over the top but likewise necessary.

Setup

Support and enforce HTTPS

Make sure the domain of your Matomo installation supports and enforces HTTPS.

• HTTPS at Uberspace

• wildcard certificates using acme.sh

• Matomo ForceSSL Plugin

Install Matomo

• Matomo Download

• Installation Guide

TL;DR

Place the extracted files in the respective docroot and open the URL to click through the installation process. Afterwards, login and customize your settings.

Geolocation Settings

• GeoIP 2 Plugin at Matomo Marketplace

• How do I get the GeoIP2 databases to improve accuracy of Country detection, and detect visitors’ Cities and Regions?

TL;DR

Enable GeoIP 2 (php) - installer and options at Settings > Geolocation

• Location Database URL:
  https://geolite.maxmind.com/download/geoip/database/GeoLite2-City.tar.gz

• ISP Database URL:
  http://geolite.maxmind.com/download/geoip/database/GeoLite2-ASN.tar.gz

GDPR Compliance Settings

• Matomo GDPR Overview

• How to not process any personal data with Matomo and what it means for you

TL;DR

Offer clearly visible and transparent informations about your tracking, how visitors can avoid it and how you handle personal data of your visitors.

Checklist for not processing any personal data at all:

• anonymize IP adresses by at least 2 bytes (192.168.xxx.xxx)

• use anonymized IP adresses for data enriching like geolocation

• anonymize user and order IDs (if the website uses them after all)

• let users opt-out of tracking

• support do-not-track preference

If you are instead processing personal data, there are further steps to take. Like offering your visitors access to their personal data and the possibility to delete it.

Disabling Cookies

• How do I disable all cookies for a visitor?

• When cookies are disabled by a visitor, how does it impact Matomo reports accuracy?

TL;DR

In your website code, call disableCookies before trackPageView:

_paq.push(['disableCookies']);
_paq.push(['trackPageView']);

Setup Cron to automatically archive Reports

Regulary archived reports allow automated deletion of daily logs. Also, with reliable archives, archiving on browser view can be deactivated to allow faster responses for our matomo website.

Run crontab -e to edit your crontab.

23 * * * * /var/www/virtual/simbo/analytics.simbo.de/console core:archive --url=https://analytics.simbo.de/ > /home/simbo/matomo-archive.log

This will run every hour at minute 23. Set path, URL and logfile according to your environment.