Piwik PRO is a first-party data platform that uses a similar framework to Universal Analytics. The biggest difference between Piwik PRO & other analytics platforms is the data ownership. This means that the owner of the website always retains ownership of the data, which is fairly uncommon in similar products. What the platform collects is entirely dependent on the tool’s setup, but the following are almost always collected:

• Site actions: The primary points of data collection, the events that users take on your site. This could be a button click, a form submission, a video view, or nearly any action you’ve defined on your site.
• Event properties: The additional information attached to events, such as transaction prices, categories, & other information, which can be defined during setup.
• Device information: This can include the model of the device the user is using, the operating system, browser.
• Location data: This includes your approximate location based on your IP address.

Every organization’s definition of HIPAA-compliance is dependent on their legal team’s interpretation of the guidelines set by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That being said, Piwik PRO falls pretty low on the risk scale because they offer self-storage and are willing to enter into a Business Associate Agreement (BAAs).

Piwik PRO is a data-forward, privacy-focused product, whose risk mitigation options go beyond entering into a BAA. That being said, it is a good idea to ensure you have the following in place in order to catch some common missteps:

• Ensure that you have a current, valid BAA in place. Schedule regular check-ins to verify that your BAA is still current.
• Consider any other tools that may be integrated with Piwik PRO – is your configuration sending data to another third party tool? If so, do you have a BAA in place with that vendor? Stay aware of all steps of your data processing, storage, & transmissions and be judicious about integrations that are unnecessary, redundant, or obsolete.
• Remember that as the website owner, it is your responsibility to own the data process & determine where this data goes. Are you storing it on a third party server? If so, is this server HIPAA-compliant? Each endpoint introduces another possibility for liability and risk.

It’s always important to connect with your legal team to determine how best to move forward. Listen to our HIPAA & FTC 101 podcast for more information about changes for healthcare companies.

Mixpanel is a first-party data platform that, much like GA4, operates on an event-based framework. What the platform collects is entirely dependent on the tool’s setup, but the following are almost always collected:

• Site actions: The primary points of data collection, site actions are the events that users take on your website. This could be a button click, a form submission, a video view, or nearly any action you’ve defined on your site.
• Event properties: The additional information attached to events, such as transaction prices, categories, & other information, which can be defined during setup.
• Device information: This can include the model of the device the user is using, the operating system, browser.
• Location data: This includes your approximate location based on your IP address.

Every organization’s definition of HIPAA-compliance is dependent on their legal team’s interpretation of the guidelines set by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That being said, Mixpanel falls fairly low on the risk scale, largely because Mixpanel is willing to enter into Business Associate Agreements (BAAs) with its customers.

Mixpanel is a data-forward, privacy-focused product, whose risk mitigation options go beyond entering into a BAA. Mixpanel is built on Google Cloud Platform, which is subjected to regular, independent verification of security, privacy, & compliance controls against HIPAA. That being said, it is a good idea to ensure you have the following in place in order to catch some common missteps:

• Ensure that you have a current, valid BAA in place. Schedule regular check-ins to verify that your BAA is still current.
• Consider any other tools that may be integrated with Mixpanel – is your configuration sending data to another third party tool? If so, do you have a BAA in place with that vendor? Stay aware of all steps of your data processing, storage, and transmissions, and be judicious about integrations that are unnecessary, redundant, or obsolete.

It’s always important to connect with your legal team to determine how best to move forward. Listen to our HIPAA & FTC 101 podcast for more information about changes for healthcare companies.

Google Analytics, unsurprisingly, collects a lot of data about your user:

• User ID: This is a unique identifier that is assigned to each user. GA4 uses this ID to track users across multiple sessions and devices.
• User properties: These are additional pieces of information about users, such as their age, gender, location, and interests.
• Events: These are actions that users take on your website or app. For example, an event could be a pageview, a download, or a purchase. These events need to be setup by the owner .
• Sessions: A session is a group of interactions that a user takes on your website or app within a certain period of time.
• Dimensions: These are the different attributes of your data, such as the date, time, and page URL.
• Metrics: These are the measurements of your data, such as the number of users, sessions, and events.

Google Analytics 4 has made a lot of improvements that make it easier for companies to utilize stronger data privacy standards and move further into the age of cookieless tracking. These changes allow the tool to be used more in line with GDPR, CCPA, & other privacy policies. Despite these changes, however, Google Analytics is not HIPAA-compliant, as it still receives and stores PII/PHI, including device IDs, browser information, and location data, and does not offer a BAA. Google even explicitly states that “Google makes no representations that Google Analytics satisfies HIPAA requirements” and instructs users to refrain from exposing the software from any information that could be considered PII/PHI.

There are several ways to make Google Analytics safer with strong data privacy standards. These are available in the Privacy Controls section of your Google Analytics settings. While enabling these settings will not satisfy HIPAA guidelines, it could help safeguard some user data while you determine a path forward (see our blog, Auditing your marketing plan for HIPAA compliance)

• Data collection: You can disable the collection of certain types of data in Google Analytics, such as location data, device information, and user-agent strings.
• Data sharing: You can control how your data is shared with other Google products and services, including Google Ads & YouTube.
• Consent mode: You can enable consent mode, which allows you to collect data from users who have given their consent.
• Data retention: You can control how long your data is retained by Google Analytics.
• User-level data access and portability: You can grant users access to their own data in Google Analytics.

PRO TIP: Server-side tagging is a data tracking method that can help organizations protect user data. While it requires a well thought out digital infrastructure, it can give organizations more control over their data and help them comply with privacy regulations while still using Google Analytics.