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Italian watchdog bans use of Google Analytics

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Re: Italian watchdog bans use of Google Analytics

#451

Post by toyg »

kixiQu wrote: post #143
digitalengineer wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some time ago Google gave EU admins the option to select a local regional (EU) server. This means the data is not send to the US. But! It’s still nog fully legal as the Google HQ (and thus the US government( can still access all the data.

if anyone is curious about why that gives the govt. access: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CLOUD_Act (God willing they repeal it, even if only for the international commerce implications...)

This will never be repealed. It was introduced to effectively enshrine a right US authorities have had since the PATRIOT Act was introduced 17 years prior, since that act had become politically contentious and was left to expire.

If anybody seriously thinks US authorities will quietly lose a key power after enjoying it for 21 years, I have a few bridges ready to be sold.

Re: Italian watchdog bans use of Google Analytics

#452

Post by dmitriid »

stickfigure wrote: post #362
corywatilo wrote: post #18

Italy is the 4th in a string of recent decisions across the EU. (We're tracking these cases on isgoogleanalyticsillegal.com along with details for each.) Note that it's not illegal to use GA entirely, just illegal to use in its default state which transmits PII to the US.

Is it illegal to use my website from Italy? I store PII (and everything else) in the US.

No. It's illegal for you to operate in the EU.

Re: Italian watchdog bans use of Google Analytics

#453

Post by makeitdouble »

tick_tock_tick wrote: post #428

I'd be terrified if I was a EU company at this point. There is not logically way these same rules don't apply to using AWS, GCP, and Azure. There isn't enough other cloud hosting with nearly the same capabilities in Europe to handle that day.

GCP and Azure have options to keep all data within the EU, I'm sure AWS has something to at this point. In France GCP is approved for public business, so it seems to be working fine.

On your general point, we're way past the point where a company is allowed to blindly use any random SaaS without caring about what it does with the data or where it goes. The pendulum is clearly swinging back.

Re: Italian watchdog bans use of Google Analytics

#454

Post by undefinedzero »

DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #433
kixiQu wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if anyone is curious about why that gives the govt. access: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CLOUD_Act (God willing they repeal it, even if only for the international commerce implications...)

something I'm not getting here. If you buy a EU engineered IoT home appliance that has PII including, whether a user is presently inside their home, then every company I know operating in this market uses US based clouds (what other options are there LOL) to do things like digital twin or device shadows but by using a local availability zone. So this is very different than GA, but depending on the threat-model can be…

The watchdogs are extremely slow and have a huge backlog. You’re right that storing that data in the US or without transferring ownership to an EU subsidiary would not be legal.

Re: Italian watchdog bans use of Google Analytics

#455

Post by toyg »

DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #433
kixiQu wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if anyone is curious about why that gives the govt. access: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CLOUD_Act (God willing they repeal it, even if only for the international commerce implications...)

something I'm not getting here. If you buy a EU engineered IoT home appliance that has PII including, whether a user is presently inside their home, then every company I know operating in this market uses US based clouds (what other options are there LOL) to do things like digital twin or device shadows but by using a local availability zone. So this is very different than GA, but depending on the threat-model can be…

You're not missing anything. A lot of companies just have no idea of the legal landscape, or simply ignore it in the name of convenience. That's because consumers are even more ignorant of their rights around technology and don't sue them. It will take a lot of civil litigation for this to change.

Re: Italian watchdog bans use of Google Analytics

#456

Post by Scarblac »

alexklarjr wrote: post #438
suction wrote: post #432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an EU citizen, I find it to be a huge improvement to detangle my data from US-American entities. Especially with the election of Trump and January 6th. Maybe Americans haven't fully realized what that meant for US-EU relations for the next hundreds of years. The US is just not a politically stable country until further notice.

since when EU became politically stable? Last time i checked you were at war with Russia.

Ukraine is, not the EU. The US is at least as involved in the war as the EU is.

But I wouldn't call many EU countries very stable either. It can still be a win to not send private data to the US though, tracking has become far too precise and omnipresent.

Re: Italian watchdog bans use of Google Analytics

#457

Post by spockz »

DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #433
kixiQu wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if anyone is curious about why that gives the govt. access: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CLOUD_Act (God willing they repeal it, even if only for the international commerce implications...)

something I'm not getting here. If you buy a EU engineered IoT home appliance that has PII including, whether a user is presently inside their home, then every company I know operating in this market uses US based clouds (what other options are there LOL) to do things like digital twin or device shadows but by using a local availability zone. So this is very different than GA, but depending on the threat-model can be…

I am only aware of Hetzner. (German) The other day I was checking out there offerings and I was amazed at how easy it is to order a vm. And then it is live the next second. It is amazing.

Obviously they don’t have full range of services the big three have. But maybe just enough anyway.

Re: Italian watchdog bans use of Google Analytics

#458

Post by rambambram »

adrr wrote: post #434
rambambram wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Congrats. We also chose to do the analytics ourselves. No tracking, no cookie banners, and probably better stats as well. One thing that Google did very cleverly was to only give GA users the search terms that visitors used to end up on their site.

How are you tracking returning users without cookies? Also if it’s multi-lingual, how are you storing the language prefs?

> How are you tracking returning users without cookies?

We're not. And that's exactly the point, because we don't want to track. I make a distinction between tracking, analyzing and stats. What we do is guess who are the unique visitors (and who are not), and I say guess because it's guesswork since the browser can spew out any kind of info.

Re: Italian watchdog bans use of Google Analytics

#459

Post by toyg »

realusername wrote: post #416
cm2012 wrote: post #91

Another decision in a long stream that will make it much harder for EU start-ups companies to catch up to American ones. With absolutely no improvements to actual EU citizen well being.

That decision is on the US, once the cloud act will be removed, those services will be legal again

Before the CLOUD Act there was the PATRIOT Act, which had effectively the same provisions.

These things have not been legal since the GDPR went into effect, and in some countries even before then.

Re: Italian watchdog bans use of Google Analytics

#460

Post by [deleted] »

alexklarjr wrote: post #438
suction wrote: post #432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an EU citizen, I find it to be a huge improvement to detangle my data from US-American entities. Especially with the election of Trump and January 6th. Maybe Americans haven't fully realized what that meant for US-EU relations for the next hundreds of years. The US is just not a politically stable country until further notice.

since when EU became politically stable? Last time i checked you were at war with Russia.

[deleted]
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