Safeguard Data Privacy and Propel Your Business with Video Analytics

If you’re a DIYer, then you’ve probably had a similar experience. Now that you’re working from home part of the week, you need a more serious desk. You can pull out a hammer, screwdriver, sandpaper, and saw from your toolbox and build something basic. But if you want a desk that’s more functional — one with easy sliding drawers, a place for your printer, and other useful features you get at the office — then you’ll have to get a hold of more sophisticated tools. A finish nailer, power drill, electric sander, and table saw for starters. 

The same logic holds true with data analytics solutions. There are all kinds of tools out there, particularly web analytics solutions built to measure site usage by tracking page clicks and ecommerce transactions. Some are basic while others are more sophisticated and may include social media interaction and media consumption. It may seem intuitive or easy to adapt one of them for your streaming video service. But is it the right tool for the job? In the end, a generic web analytics solution may deliver underwhelming and unreliable results from your data. And the risks you may incur are much greater than a few splinters from a rough-and-ready office desk. 

Protecting privacy is in everyone’s interest 

Choosing a video data analysis solution is not just about technical capabilities. If you’re a global service provider, you’re probably aware of GDPR, CCPA or other relevant privacy compliance regulations. 

Whether or not you’ve addressed data privacy compliance until now, the stakes are much higher today. That’s because data protection authorities (DPAs) in Italy, France and Austria have all recently ruled that Google Analytics violates GDPR requirements. The charge: unsafely moving European user data to the US. The penalty: up to 4% of your annual revenue. 

Complying with GDPR is no picnic 

Ensuring GDPR compliance with web analytics data can be quite complex. For example, you need to be able to secure your users’ personally identifiable information (PII) such as subscriber/device IDs and IP addresses. 

Just like the DIYer, you can handle and store your users’ IP addresses… if you know what you’re doing and have the tools and resources to do it. Among other things, that means obfuscating PII data, tracking consent, and adding other security measures, all which translate to greater manpower costs and potential headaches. 

Beware of unauthorized usage 

Working with a web analytics tool can also mean giving up control over your customer data. Web analytics firms are notorious for leveraging such data to retarget their clients’ users on their own platforms, such as search portals, streaming services, and social media. The data might also be sold to other commercial enterprises, which may be good for themselves and their buyers, but not necessarily for your customers. 

Generating actionable video insights 

Ultimately, you want to use customer data to improve their experience with your service, turning them into loyal and satisfied viewers. That means transforming all the data into actionable insights so you can understand and improve viewer engagement, streamline content discovery, and deliver high-quality, personalized content and offers. To gain full confidence in your analytics solution, it needs to: 

• Capture all relevant video data, including content metadata, device information, and player statistics such as trick mode usage, buffering events and bitrates 
• Conduct data management activities like transformation, cleansing, and normalization as part of the ingest process 
• Calculate metrics that take into consideration video concepts such as viewing session or journey definition, trick modes, and capping 
• Deliver comprehensive video insights that are aligned with your business’ KPIs and outcomes 

Having the right tool on hand not only saves you a lot of time and effort, but also protects your investment and positively impacts your business. So, does it really pay to smoothen a wooden surface with sandpaper rather than use an electric sander to give you a well-finished desk? 

The best of both worlds 

Using a video-centric data analytics solution gives you the best of both worlds. On the one hand, it ensures you comply with regulations, secure your user data, and gain peace of mind. On the other, it generates valuable, actionable business insights that will propel your business forward. 

And we just so happen to have the perfect tool for the job. 

To find out more how Synamedia Clarissa can harness the power of your user data, contact us.