February 2022 Summaries

PostHog 1.33.0 introduces a comprehensive experimentation suite allowing for multivariate experiments, enhancing the ability to optimize user value through A/B testing, now requiring less manual setup. The release also includes support for managed ClickHouse infrastructure via Altinity Cloud, over 290 improvements and bug fixes, and the ability to set granular dashboard permissions for enterprise customers. Other notable features are a redesigned dashboard interface, a new instance configuration UI, improved insight permalinks, smarter event filters, and faster performance on the events page. Users are advised to complete all asynchronous migrations before upgrading to the next version. Additionally, PostHog encourages user feedback and community involvement, while highlighting its ongoing hiring efforts for various engineering roles.

Hightouch has launched an integration with PostHog, enabling data teams to sync modeled data from data warehouses like Google BigQuery, Redshift, and Snowflake into PostHog using reverse ETL, which transforms a data warehouse into a Customer Data Platform (CDP). This process ensures that tools across an organization use consistent, up-to-date data, allowing data scientists to model data before syncing, unlike Customer Data Platforms that send raw data. Hightouch supports syncing events and data to the 'Persons' object in PostHog from various data sources such as Airtable, MySQL, and Google Sheets, facilitating the creation of user cohorts based on specific data attributes. Hightouch offers different pricing tiers, including a free individual plan for syncing to one destination, and encourages community contributions to enhance its open-source PostHog platform.

Engineers and product managers must be diligent in handling user data due to the potential for severe fines under the GDPR, which can be as high as €20 million or 4% of a company's global turnover. This guide clarifies the distinctions between personal data, PII, and PHI, emphasizing the broader scope of 'personal data' under the GDPR compared to the U.S. concept of PII. Personal data under the GDPR includes any information that can directly or indirectly identify a data subject, with special categories requiring explicit consent. The guide also outlines what constitutes non-personal data and explains that when personal and non-personal data are mixed, GDPR regulations still apply. PostHog provides solutions for GDPR compliance and offers a Business Associate Agreement for HIPAA compliance, alongside resources for understanding privacy regulations like the GDPR, HIPAA, and CCPA.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) sets strict regulations on how protected health information (PHI) must be secured, handled, and transmitted, with significant penalties for non-compliance. Google Analytics is not HIPAA-compliant because Google does not allow Covered Entities or Business Associates to enter into a Business Associate Agreement (BAA), which is essential for using any tool that processes PHI. Consequently, using Google Analytics or related platforms like Google Optimize by entities handling PHI could lead to a breach and substantial fines. Alternatives such as product analytics or self-hosted analytics solutions are recommended for HIPAA compliance. HIPAA fines, which can escalate based on the severity and number of breaches, have reached as high as $16 million and can affect organizations of all sizes, as evidenced by past penalties levied against both large companies and smaller entities like a children's charity.

PostHog is hosting its inaugural community meetup, "HostHogs," in London on February 24th, aimed at anyone interested in learning more about their product analytics platform, whether they are current clients or not. The event will feature a fireside chat with Anca Filip, Head of Product at Mention Me, to discuss how her company uses PostHog, against the backdrop of their recent $25 million funding round. With high vaccination rates in the UK, safety measures such as hand sanitizer, masks, and a spacious venue will be in place, although masks and vaccination proof will not be required. The event is free but has limited capacity, making an RSVP essential to secure attendance. Attendees can look forward to complimentary drinks and pizza, and for those unable to attend, a write-up of the talks will be available post-event. Queries can be directed to PostHog's community page, email, GitHub, or Slack group.

PostHog's Session Recording feature, an open-source session replay tool, has undergone significant improvements, reducing missing recordings from 15% to less than 1% and enhancing user experience. Initially, missing recordings were a major issue, attributed to errors like "Max data upload size exceeded," thought to be caused by large image data URLs. By implementing filters to manage data upload size and refining how recordings are split and snapshots are taken in single-page applications, the team resolved the bulk of these issues. The use of RRWeb for capturing and replaying DOM changes was crucial, and the fix involved ensuring new full snapshots were taken when recordings were split due to user inactivity. This led to a notable increase in the feature's usage, with weekly active users rising 2.5 times and doubling their recording views. Although missing recordings are now below 1%, ongoing efforts focus on resolving potential data compression errors or slow network issues that might contribute to this minimal remaining discrepancy.

PostHog is celebrating Valentine's Day by supporting the open-source community that contributes to its development, pledging to donate $5 for each GitHub star received on their repository until the end of the holiday, with a cap of $50,000. The donations will be evenly distributed among four recipients: three projects—Rrweb, Django REST, and Babel—and one prolific open-source developer, Sindre Sorhus, all of whom significantly impact PostHog's operations. This initiative not only serves to give back to the community but also aims to increase PostHog's visibility on platforms like GitHub Trending, potentially reaching new users who would benefit from using the product. The donations will be verified for legitimacy, and the initiative reflects PostHog's pride and commitment to the open-source ecosystem.