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Why Matomo Needs a Server-Side Tag Manager: Privacy and the Future of Tracking

germangoogle-analyticsmatomoserver-sidegdprprivacyintermediate
4/5The video provides comprehensive insights into server-side tracking and its importance for privacy compliance, featuring knowledgeable industry experts who clearly explain technical concepts and business benefits. The roundtable format allows for in-depth discussion of implementation challenges and future possibilities, though the production quality is somewhat basic with occasional audio issues.
Why Matomo Needs a Server-Side Tag Manager: Privacy and the Future of Tracking | Table Discussion

In this insightful roundtable discussion, industry experts Ronan Hello, Peter Boehlke, and Denis Golubovskyi explore why Matomo needs to develop a server-side tag manager to stay competitive in the evolving digital analytics landscape. The panel begins by explaining the fundamental difference between client-side and server-side tracking. While traditional client-side tracking sends data directly from the user's browser to various vendors, server-side tracking routes this data through a server container first, giving businesses greater control over what information is shared with third parties. The experts highlight several key advantages of server-side tracking, including improved data privacy compliance, better handling of third-party cookie deprecation, enhanced attribution for marketing campaigns, and the ability to bypass ad blockers (which can block up to 30% of tracking in some industries). Additionally, server-side implementations significantly improve website performance by reducing client-side JavaScript load. A central theme throughout the discussion is data sovereignty. With server-side tracking, businesses can precisely control what data is sent to each vendor, supporting compliance with various privacy regulations worldwide including GDPR, HIPAA, and others. This control is impossible with traditional client-side implementations where third-party scripts can collect any information they want from your website. The panel emphasizes that while Google Tag Manager offers server-side capabilities, there's a pressing need for an open-source alternative that integrates seamlessly with Matomo's privacy-first philosophy. They outline a wish list for Matomo's server-side solution, including comprehensive logging, debugging tools, a template marketplace, and version control for tags. From our perspective at gdpr-server-tracking.eu, this video perfectly illustrates why server-side tracking is becoming essential for privacy-conscious businesses. While Matomo's future server-side tag manager will be a welcome addition to the market, organizations can already implement privacy-compliant server-side tracking using our EU-based Google server-side tag manager hosting. Our solution offers all the benefits discussed in the video – including enhanced privacy controls, improved performance, and better marketing attribution – while ensuring your data stays within the EU on bare metal servers (not shared cloud infrastructure). This eliminates many data transfer risks and helps with GDPR compliance at very competitive pricing compared to cloud-based alternatives.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about "Why Matomo Needs a Server-Side Tag Manager: Privacy and the Future of Tracking | Table Discussion"

Client-side tracking sends data directly from the user's browser to various vendors, while server-side tracking routes this data through a server container first. This gives businesses greater control over what information is shared with third parties and improves data privacy compliance.

Server-side tracking provides better data privacy compliance, helps handle third-party cookie deprecation, enhances marketing attribution, and can bypass ad blockers (which block up to 30% of tracking in some industries). Additionally, it significantly improves website performance by reducing client-side JavaScript load.

Server-side tracking gives businesses precise control over what data is sent to each vendor, supporting GDPR compliance by allowing you to strip personal data before sharing with third parties. This level of control is impossible with traditional client-side implementations where third-party scripts can collect any information they want.

EU-based hosting like gdpr-server-tracking.eu keeps your data within the EU on dedicated servers, eliminating many data transfer risks and helping with GDPR compliance. This approach offers enhanced privacy controls, improved performance, and better marketing attribution while avoiding the shared infrastructure risks of cloud-based alternatives.

While server-side tracking is more complex than client-side implementation, the difficulty mainly lies in setting up the environment. Using a pre-configured EU-based hosting solution like gdpr-server-tracking.eu significantly reduces this complexity, making it accessible to marketing teams with basic technical knowledge.

Yes, server-side tracking can bypass ad blockers because the requests are sent server-to-server rather than from the browser. This is particularly valuable in industries like gaming or products targeting younger demographics, where ad blocker usage can reach 30% or higher.

Server-side tracking significantly improves website performance by reducing the amount of JavaScript loaded on the client side. This is especially beneficial for e-commerce sites using multiple affiliate networks and tracking scripts, resulting in faster page loads and better user experience.

Look for comprehensive logging capabilities, debugging tools, a template marketplace for easy integration with various services, and version control for tags. Additionally, EU-based hosting like gdpr-server-tracking.eu provides extra privacy benefits by keeping your data within the EU on dedicated servers rather than shared cloud infrastructure.