Privacy Analytics Researcher
Berlin, Germany
I help companies measure what matters — without handing their data to Google. Ten years in data engineering, now focused entirely on privacy-first web analytics.
How I got here
In 2020, a client in Munich called me in a panic. Their legal team had just told them Google Analytics might be illegal under GDPR. They asked me: “What do we use instead?”
I didn’t have a good answer. So I started looking for one.
Matomo, Plausible, Fathom, Umami and a dozen others all promise the same thing. The gaps show up in the details: GA4 misses over half the traffic when consent banners are involved. Found that most “alternatives” reviews are written by people who never installed the tools.
This blog exists because I got tired of that.
No “top 10” lists copied from other “top 10” lists.
What I write about
- Privacy-first analytics tools — real tests, real data
- GA4 accuracy problems and what to do about them
- GDPR compliance for marketers who aren’t lawyers
- Server-side tracking and cookieless measurement
- Migration guides for leaving Google Analytics
About this site
Identity 2.0 was started in 2005 by Dick Hardt, co-author of the OpenID 2.0 spec and one of the earliest voices in user-centric digital identity. The original posts from 2005–2010 remain in the archive.
The site now continues that conversation: who controls your data, and how do you measure your audience without surveillance?
Questions about privacy-first analytics? [email protected]