Analytics
Is Piwik PRO GDPR compliant?
Piwik PRO may only run after the visitor has agreed. It is not strictly necessary for the website to work, so loading it on arrival, before any choice, is the single most common way sites get this wrong.
- Category
- Analytics
- Needs consent
- Yes
- Leaves the EEA
- No
- Can be self-hosted
- No
- Recognised by
- piwik.pro
- Typical cookies
- _pk_id, stg_*
What does Piwik PRO do?
Analytics with EU or private hosting and a consent manager built in. It sets identifiers by default, so consent is still required unless configured otherwise.
Does Piwik PRO need consent?
Yes. Piwik PRO is Analytics, which is never strictly necessary for a website to function. Under ePrivacy Article 5(3), and its national transpositions, storing or reading anything on the device for that purpose requires consent first, and that consent has to be as easy to refuse as it is to give.
ePrivacy Art. 5(3) · TDDDG § 25 (DE) · TKG 2021 § 165(3) (AT) · GDPR Art. 6(1)(a)
Does Piwik PRO send data outside the EEA?
No. Piwik PRO keeps processing inside the EEA, which removes the third-country question entirely. You still have to name it as a recipient in your privacy policy.
What can I use instead of Piwik PRO?
| Needs consent | Leaves the EEA | Can be self-hosted | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Piwik PRO | Yes | No | No |
| Matomo Cloud | Yes | No | Yes |
| Plausible Analytics | No | No | Yes |
How do we detect Piwik PRO?
We load your page in a real browser as a first-time visitor who clicks nothing, then look at what it contacted. Piwik PRO is recognised by requests to piwik.pro, and we report whether it merely loaded or actually sent data, and whether it set a cookie before any choice was made.
Check your websiteThis describes the service as it is normally deployed. Your own configuration decides what actually happens, which is what a scan of your site shows. Not legal advice.