Website Intelligence News Roundup September 2023

Welcome to the website intelligence news roundup (September 2023)!

Yes, it's that time of the month. And for those in the northern hemisphere at least, summer has officially ended!

Still, the sun never sets completely for business; it may be the quietest time of the year, but that's no bad thing! Sure, there's less external meetings, less business development, and less recruitment. But all this means is that we all have a little more breathing time to catch up, organize, and strategize!

But much like your TWIPLA integration that is silently purring behind the scenes, we've also been busy. There have been some pretty big changes here, and this includes some exciting developments to our website intelligence solution.

So here's your website intelligence news roundup (September 2023), in which we run through what's been happening in the world of website analytics since our last update back in July!

Goodbye Visitor Analytics, Hello TWIPLA!

This is the big one, and you might have already noticed a few not-so-subtle changes to our website and app.

We've rebranded. It's been a big undertaking, and is the first and last one that we'll be doing.

So we're now called TWIPLA - a loose acronym for The Website Intelligence Platform.

"Visitor Analytics" was a very descriptive company name at the beginning, given that our platform..... analyzed website visitors.

But we've moved forward in leaps and bounds since starting out in 2015, and we've now outgrown this description. Back then, we were only available as a Wix integration, and offered the standard website statistics that you (still only) get from alternatives like Google Analytics.

Fast forward to 2023, and our platform is now compatible with all website types. But the rebranding has a deeper significance. If truth be told, we've long felt that "Visitor Analytics" no longer does justice to just how advanced our website analytics solution has become. And given all the visitor behavior analytics tools and visitor communication features that we now offer, maybe Visitor Analytics++ would have encapsulated our full service provision better.

But we like TWIPLA, and we've been quietly rebranding over the last few weeks. And beyond the new logo and color scheme, we've also migrated our website. Plenty of fat has been cut off it, and you should find that it performs faster than ever.

Don't worry though, the changes to our platform are only skin deep and nothing about your account is different. Underneath, it’s the same privacy-first analytics solution that you already know, and we will continue to introduce loads of fantastic new features so watch this space!

We hope you like it!

Why TWIPLA Grows Website Traffic Data Capture by up to 500%

The fact is that not all analytics platforms are created equally and if we're honest, the Germans know a thing or two about engineering - there's a reason why all the very best pianos around the world are still made by the German disapora.

But back to analytics. At TWIPLA, our developers have been focusing on privacy-perfect innovation since long before anyone else in the sector. And today, our advanced cookieless tracking engine enables website owners to collect up to five times more visitor data than with popular alternatives.

That's great news for insight accuracy and effective growth!

Sure, it's a pretty big statement but it's more than empty marketing gibberish - we've got the evidence to back it up.

Learn exactly why TWIPLA collects more website visitor data than competitors.

US and EU Agree Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework

Back in July, the European Commission certified a new US DPF, and US businesses have until October 10th to self-certify with this program if they want to legitimately import EU citizen personal data into the country.

This event came as a surprise to many. It's no secret that the US has found it difficult to create a data privacy environment that meets strict EU criteria, and many believe that this agreement won't be able to withstand the legal challenge that Max Schrems is planning to lodge.

And three months on from thiis adequacy agreement, doubts remain about whether policymakers will ever reach an agreement that will protect internet user data enough given the US government's right to access on request.

So read more about the ongoing EU-US data privacy transfer saga.

Swiss Data Protection Act Ushers in New Online Privacy Era

Switzerland may never get round to filling in the holes in its cheese.

But it's finally fixed the holes in its data privacy framework, with Switzerland's revised Data Protection Act coming into force at the beginning of September.

This legislation has aligned the country closer with strict EU data privacy requirements and further tightens the global network of laws thar protect internet users.

So read more about the Swiss Data Protection Act, and its implications for analytics users.

Norway Fining Meta $98,500 per Day for User Privacy Breach

Norway. It's fairly difficult to find anything bad to say about the country unless you're a fan of winter sun. But, with this recent decision by Norway's data privacy authority, they've gone up further in our estimations.

In fact, it makes the Northern Lights a beacon for global data privacy efforts, with Meta being hit by a brick every day until it implements new measures to protect the personal data of Norwegian residents. Take that, Zuck!

At TWIPLA, we're always happy to see companies held to account for misusing personal data. It's also taken a while for this to happen. Meta are huge, and its good to see them finally hauled over the coals for their fragrant disregard of user data privacy.

But this could also be a moment of powerful precedent. For, the European Data Protection Board could easily facilitate other EU countries following suite with fines against Meta of their own if it endorses the decision.

Read more about Meta's fines in Norway.

Delaware Personal Data Privacy Law to Arrive in January 2025

Trust Delaware to punch above its weight. It may be one of the smallest states in the US but this little blue hen chicken just grew teeth!

On September 11th, it became the 12th state in the Union to roll out GDPR-like personal data protection legislation since California introduced CCPA back in 2018. What's more, its law is the strictest of them all!

The act certainly has its critics, but its arrival is still great news for internet users and data privacy advocates!

So, learn about Delaware's new data privacy law.

Is Adobe Analytics GDPR Compliant?

Adobe Analytics is installed on just under 250,000 active websites. This is obviously far less than the 2.5 million websites blessed with TWIPLA. But they're a big name away from the world of analytics, and the popularity of their PDF reader means that they're probably attracting many users based on brand awareness alone.

And as with any website integration, it's important to know what using Adobe Analytics means for GDPR compliance. The company claims that its analytics does meet the requirements of this EU data privacy law, but a closer look - and we've done a deep dive into the integration - says otherwise.

So learn more about the GDPR compliance of Adobe Analytics GDPR compliance of Adobe Analytics.

Is SurveyMonkey GDPR Compliant?

July's website intelligence news roundup was the first to bring together our research on the GDPR compliance of popular website integrations, but let's pick up where we left off.

SurveyMonkey has long been the go-to online survey tool for a great many of us. But the landscape has changed, and users need to know how well-suited it is modern data privacy legislation.

This article looks at how compliant it is with GDPR, the strictest of these laws. It will also run through the data practices that users will need to adopt to ensure they don't run into any legal issues.

So, learn more about the GDPR compliance of SurveyMonkey.

Wordpress Analytics Plugin Selection: Identifying the Privacy-first Options

Just before our rebrand and website migration temporarily stopped us from being able to publish new articles, we did a deep dive into the website analytics options that are available for Wordpress users.

It proved to be highly interesting work, highlighting both the shortage of privacy-first options and the prevalence of companies that claim to be data privacy compliant when they are actually nothing of the sort.

So read our report on the privacy-first analytics options available for Wordpress users.

Best Analytics for Wordpress: Reviewing the 9 Top Plugins for Privacy

As you no doubt know if you've read the previous article, Wordpress has a real shortage of privacy-first analytics options.

Not that this is necessarily Wordpress' fault. It's an issue that affects all content management systems. But for users, choosing a non-privacy-compliant analytics platform will undoubtedly cause problems in the future, and limit their data capture today.

So we decided that our readers could use some reviews of the nine privacy-focused options available to them.

Read our reviews of the 9 best privacy-focused analytics plugins for Wordpress.

Weebly Vs Wix: Comparing Two Website Building Contenders

Weebly and Wix are two of the biggest website builders on the planet. And who knows, maybe they'll extend their dominance cosmically once Elon Musk gets around to installing Starlink on Mars.

Here at TWIPLA, we've obviously been fans of Wix for a while. In fact, our platform was first introduced as a Wix-only integration. And if you're a Wix user, we've recently updated our TWIPLA for Wix installation guide.

But away from Wix, Weebly is also an excellent contender.

Both website builders are great, and particularly so for those of us who don't exactly have a PhD in coding.

If that sounds like you, and you're mulling over which of the two is best for you, then you'll no doubt want to understand their strengths and weaknesses before making a decision.

So learn more about how Weebly and Wix compare.

Weebly.com: How to Build Your Square Website Successfully

Weebly's a strong website building platform, even if they've been going through a bit of a stagnant period since being bought by Square. We can guess that they're trying to work out how to make this platform viable without impeding on their own eCommerce store builder.

Still, Weebly remains a great example of how something relatively complicated like website building can be made super easy with the right development - something that we recognize  ourselves in here at TWIPLA.

If you've got a Weebly site, or are considering opening an account, then we've written about how you can start building it properly.

Read about how to build a successful website with Weebly.

And of course, you'll need website analytics to direct your website development once its live and welcoming guests. You can do this with the help of TWIPLA, and we've recently updated our Weebly installation guide that will help you to get the platform up and running.