I only use GA because our ad provider, Mediavine, requires it
That's cool and all, but in the end, you are the end-responsible for it; you can't hide behind your ad provider if the GDPR police comes after you.
Companies must stop using Google Analytics
21–30 of 672 posts
Re: Companies must stop using Google Analytics
#22For those who look for an alternative https://plausible.io is a great replacement.
Plausible is OK but needs work. For example it isn't even multi lingual.
Re: Companies must stop using Google Analytics
#23The heading seems very strong considering this is a governmental agency and since they audited a "version of Google Analytics from 14th of August 2020" and presumably not GA4 that works differently.
Re: Companies must stop using Google Analytics
#24This case is about the old Analytics that was replaced with Google Analytics 4 in 2020. So they must stop using a version that Google definitely killed July 1 this year.
There are arguments that GA4 would fail the same requirements. Denmark hold that view but it hasn't been tried. Their argument is that a EU-citizen that goes to Asia and visits a site there, will have his information sent to US servers and not EU servers. I find this argument objectively absurd considering how internet works but it possible that's how the law works. We wouldn't know before it has been tried though and I'd be sceptical about anyone claiming to know the result.
Re: Companies must stop using Google Analytics
#25For those who look for an alternative https://plausible.io is a great replacement.
Or if you're after free analytics, Cloudflare has something. Should be GDPR compliant since they don't use cookies or local storage.
GDPR is not about cookies or local storage. It's about knowing users' personal data and doing things with it.
Re: Companies must stop using Google Analytics
#26This case is about the old Analytics that was replaced with Google Analytics 4 in 2020. So they must stop using a version that Google definitely killed July 1 this year. There are arguments that GA4 would fail the same requirements. Denmark hold that view but it hasn't been tried. Their argument is that a EU-citizen that goes to Asia and visits a site there, will have his information sent to US servers and not EU ser…
> Their argument is that a EU-citizen that goes to Asia and visits a site there, will have his information sent to US servers and not EU servers.
Agreed, this is absolutely ridiculous. And I say this as an EU resident! I’d rather NOT have websites start checking residency/citizenship to decide my data ownership.
Re: Companies must stop using Google Analytics
#27> According to the data protection regulation, GDPR, personal data may be transferred to third countries, i.e. countries outside the EU/EEA, if the European Commission has decided that the country in question has an adequate level of protection for personal data that corresponds to that within the EU/EEA. However, the CJEU ruled through the Schrems II ruling that the United States could not be considered to have such an adequate level of protection at the time of the ruling.
- European Court of Justice (CJEU)
I always thought that by asking for permission in the privacy statement, and in the cookie banner analytics cookies are also explicit usually, it would be OK.
But indeed, even if you refuse the analytics cookies (I do that automatically, who doesn't?), that still does not stop the website from transferring PII to google analytics. I am assuming that here, not a user of analytics, but i suppose it will still work without cookies, maybe just a little less accurate.
Re: Companies must stop using Google Analytics
#28Analytics right now is basically "you won't get any useful information for your website because we value users' privacy, don't worry we see all of the data anyway" Remember, you aren't the customer if you embed Google Analytics, Google is. edit: if you want analytics, honestly just roll your own... you can't trust advertising companies with your users' data
This is true not just for analytics but pretty much all features.
Imagine you are a great speaker and instructor and have an audience. Right now you GIFT it to YouTube, Twitter, etc. and they monetize it for you, give you a tiny percentage, and even constantly direct your audience to competitors and other distractions. In fact YouTube even sells an option to advertise your videos on your competitor’s videos!
I say — opt out. Run your own everything! Your own community software (instead of Discord). Your own videoconferencing, livestreaming, chats, presentations, gated content, accept payments with crypto in addition to PaymentRequest. It’s hard to build an open-source alternative that is good enough (no, Mastodon and Bluesky aren’t — yet).
Which is why (shameless plug warning) I spent 12 years and $1 million dollars with my team to build it. https://github.com/Qbix/Platform
Use it — as 1 of hundreds of features, you can have your own analytics on your own database on your own community site. The other features are here: https://qbix.com/features.pdf
PS: Don’t get me wrong. Keep using YouTube to host your content, etc. But relegate it to hosting short form teasers and highlights and testimonials all of which link to your site. People can discover you on the big sites but if they are serious about your long-form content and community they should buy a membership on YOUR site and have a direct relationship — then deplatforming or coersion will be the last of your worries.
Re: Companies must stop using Google Analytics
#29For those who look for an alternative https://plausible.io is a great replacement.
Or if you're after free analytics, Cloudflare has something. Should be GDPR compliant since they don't use cookies or local storage.
> Should be GDPR compliant since they don't use cookies or local storage.
That’s not how it works. If there’s personal data being transferred to the US, you are in violation according to the Schrems II ruling. If you only collect non-PII, you should be fine. Make sure though that your definition of PII matches the regulator‘s definition.
Re: Companies must stop using Google Analytics
#30The heading seems very strong considering this is a governmental agency and since they audited a "version of Google Analytics from 14th of August 2020" and presumably not GA4 that works differently.
Rereading it now seems like "companies" in the heading only refers to the three fined companies and that the decision may be applicable to other companies.