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Companies must stop using Google Analytics

imy.se

151–160 of 672 posts

Re: Companies must stop using Google Analytics

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can’t hash an ipv4 address. It’s trivial to brute force all possibilities given the limited problem space.

But you could use a salt, right?

Only if the salt is kept secret. There also needs to be a different salt value per ip, obviously. But given those conditions, it works.

Of course, it would be just as simple to use the salt as-is, in that case, since you have to look it up anyway.

Re: Companies must stop using Google Analytics

#152
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But if you wash the IP and any other PII then you can store it anywhere? So why store IP? Is it because GA doesn't offer an option to wipe PII from the messages?

This is where it gets tricky and why I need to find out more details about the new rulings. Google does not store IP when the user is from the EU but this still seems inadequate to the IMY. https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/12017362?hl=en

So long as all PII is cleared client side and not merely dropped before storage I can’t see any issues with GDPR?

Re: Companies must stop using Google Analytics

#153
post #91

Every time a client makes me implement google analytics or facebook pixel code I die a little inside. And even though some actually use google ads, they have zero benefit from using analytics. I know, because I'm the one adjusting their campaigns. It's just another thing everyone does and one would be stupid not to, right, right? The lemming mentality always makes me sad because so many bad things in our society are…

Could you link to a site where you’ve rolled your own SPA? Or ideally the source code. I’d like to take a look as not many people do that, even less do so with enough attention to detail not to cause UX regressions (not that third-party solutions are brilliant either).

Re: Companies must stop using Google Analytics

#154
This yet another ruling after Austria, Finland, France, Denmark and Italy

https://wideangle.co/blog/is-google-analytics-illegal-under-...

The writing was on the wall for years now.

Some DPAs like CNIL fire warning shots first, giving 4 months to comply. Then the fines keep rolling.

Re: Companies must stop using Google Analytics

#155
post #20

Analytics 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

Matomo is a good self hosted analytics option.

Plausible is a better alternative.

Re: Companies must stop using Google Analytics

#156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, job for people who only knew google analytics exist? I thought at minimum SQL is required, and today's analysts also need to know python/pandas at minimum. Imagine being a 'frontend developer' who can only use squarespace.

> Imagine being a 'frontend developer' who can only use squarespace. More likely: Imagine being a 'frontend developer' who can only use React.

It's sad because it's a reality for many

Re: Companies must stop using Google Analytics

#157
post #16
post #10

For 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.

Cloudflare is also questionable when it come to GDPR. Lots of folks conflate privacy and cookies with GDPR. Compliance is much more than that.

Re: Companies must stop using Google Analytics

#158
post #34

My sister-in-law (girlfriends brothers girlfriend, not that it matters) recently studied for a data analytics certification. Actually several. The entire course (located on here: https://medieinstitutet.se ) is based on Google Analytics. Now her entire value is tied to the use of Google Analytics, she will almost certainly fight very hard to ensure that these skills remain relevant, nobody would want to retrain for 6…

Wow, job for people who only knew google analytics exist? I thought at minimum SQL is required, and today's analysts also need to know python/pandas at minimum. Imagine being a 'frontend developer' who can only use squarespace.

There are people who are trained and know mainly Wordpress, so not a surprise. However, if they can transition to a second product, they will be able to generalize to a n-th as well.

Re: Companies must stop using Google Analytics

#159
post #26

This 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.

They already do.

Re: Companies must stop using Google Analytics

#160
post #28

Analytics 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 —…

Holy 2008 what a website! I won't comment on any specific design choices here, but accessibility-wise: the text on the team page seems fuzzy? Looks like it's a text-shadow.
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