Showing user name not id

General questions
1

Hello,
Is there a way of showing user names not the id itself from wordpress because we do not know who saw what pages because it just shows them the id, not the name or the username. So we just know what country they are from and so we cannot make any reports.

Thanks :slight_smile:

2

Hi,

Matomo shows exactly what is tracked with the User ID feature. If you are using WP-Matomo (I think and can’t check right now) you can select in the advanced settings if the tracking uses the wordpress username, email or something else.

3

I found it!! Thanks!! So another question. After I changed it to username, it looks like it didn’t make any changes for the stats before. So will the username show on the stats from the time after I made those changes? Or should the username still appear on the old stats as well?

4

Hi,

The setting only changes what data is sent to Matomo. So I assume that Matomo will detect new users who have now the user name as their ID.

5

Thank you!! :slight_smile: I really appreciate for the help!! Awesome!!

1 Like
6

But watch out : now, even if you have set Matomo to anonymise data, they are not anonymous anymore, at least for logged in users. If you’re in the EU, GPRD applies and you should not activate Matomo tracker for these users without their consent.

1 Like
7

I didn’t know.
Thanks for letting me know.

How would I be able to let these users know?

Do they have to press like an accept button? Or just by text?

8

Sorry for the delay, I got the notification of your answer only now.

It really depends. Have a look at the requirements of GDPR. It relies on principles, not “simple” rules. It’s impossible to say “you can do this” or “you can’t do that”.

The basic principle is that :

  • When you log personnal data, you have to tell it to the users, and explain why you do it. “Personal” is a quite wide idea. IP is a personal data. Id and address also.
  • If this personnal data is not required for your site to work, you need the acknowledgment of the users before logging it. Except if you consider that there is a legitimate reason to do so. Legitimate is not simple to decide. Logging the address of someone who ordered you something in an online store is legitimate : you need it. Logging the id of someone modifiying some information in a backend is legitimate : you need a trace of who did what. It’s up to you to decide what is legitimate or not.