| # Privacy |
| This is a summary of all of the components within Matomo which may affect your privacy in some way. Please keep in mind |
| third party Themes, Plugins or Apps may introduce privacy concerns not listed here. |
|
|
| ## Privacy for users being tracked by Matomo |
| In this section we document how to protect the privacy of visitors who are tracked by your Matomo analytics service. |
|
|
| ### Anonymise visitor IP addresses |
| By default, Matomo stores the visitor IP address (IPv4 or IPv6 format) in the database for each new visitor. |
| If a visitor has a static IP address this means their browsing history can be easily identified across several days and |
| even across several websites tracked within the same Matomo server. You can anonymize IP addresses to ensure visitors cannot |
| be tracked this way: [How to anonymise IP addresses.](https://matomo.org/docs/privacy/#step-1-automatically-anonymize-visitor-ips) |
|
|
| ### Delete old visitors logs |
| By default, Matomo stores tracked data forever. To better respect the privacy of your users, it is recommended to regularly |
| purge old data. You can configure Matomo to automatically delete log data older than a specified number of months: |
| [How to delete old visitors log data.](https://matomo.org/docs/privacy/#step-2-delete-old-visitors-logs) |
|
|
| ### Include a tracking Opt-Out feature on your site |
| In your website, we recommended providing an easy way for your visitors to “opt-out” of being tracked by Matomo. |
| You can use the Opt-Out feature to display a link your website that sets a special browser cookie (`matomo_ignore`) when |
| clicked. Visitors that click that link will be ignored by Matomo in the future: |
| [How to include a tracking opt-out iframe.](https://matomo.org/docs/privacy/#step-3-include-a-web-analytics-opt-out-feature-on-your-site-using-an-iframe) |
|
|
| ### Respect DoNotTrack preference |
| Do Not Track is a browser-level technology and policy proposal that lets visitors opt out of tracking by websites they |
| do not visit. Visitors can enable this preference in their browser, and then it's up to Matomo to respect it. By default, |
| Matomo is configured to ignore visitors that have enabled it: |
| [How to check if your Matomo respects DoNotTrack.] (https://matomo.org/docs/privacy/#step-4-respect-donottrack-preference) |
|
|
| ### Disable tracking cookies |
| A cookie is a collection of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer and accesses each time the visitor |
| returns. By default, Matomo uses cookies to aid in tracking visitor behavior. If someone gains access to a visitor's |
| computer, they could learn a few things about how the visitor visited your website. For many websites, this isn't a |
| problem, but for others where a strong level of privacy is required (like online banking), disabling tracking cookies may |
| be a good idea: [How to disable tracking cookies.](https://matomo.org/faq/general/faq_157/) |
|
|
| ### Keep your visitors details private |
| Any user that has at least `view` access (the default access level) to Matomo can view detailed information for all users |
| tracked in Matomo (such as their IP addresses, visitor IDs, details of all past visits and actions, etc.) through features |
| provided by the `Live` plugin (such as the Visitor Log and Visitor Profile). As the Matomo administrator, you may decide |
| that not all of your users need access to this data. You can deactivate the `Live` plugin to prevent users from viewing |
| visitor details in the Administration > Plugins page. |
|
|
| ## Privacy for Matomo admins and website owners |
| In this section we document how a Matomo administrator can better protect their own privacy. |
|
|
| ### Keep your Matomo server URL private |
| By default, the Matomo Javascript code on all tracked websites contains the Matomo server URL. In some cases you might |
| want to hide this Matomo URL completely while still tracking all websites in your Matomo instance. To hide your Matomo |
| server's URL, you can modify the Javascript Tracking code and point it to a proxy piwik.php script instead of your actual |
| Matomo server: [How to keep Matomo server URL private.](https://matomo.org/faq/how-to/faq_132/) |
|
|
| ### Automatic update check |
| From time to time, Matomo uses `api.matomo.org` to check if the current version of Matomo is the latest version of Matomo. |
| If an update is available, a notification is displayed allowing you to upgrade Matomo. To disable the update check, |
| and stop your instance from sending HTTP requests to `api.matomo.org`, deactivate the "Automatic update" feature by |
| setting `enable_auto_update = 0` in your configuration file `config/config.ini.php`. |
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|
| Learn more about [Privacy in Matomo](https://matomo.org/privacy/). |
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