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Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

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Re: Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

#191

Post by can16358p »

Sebb767 wrote: post #48
can16358p wrote: post #8

I don't like Google but seriously this whole GDPR thing is getting out of hand. Anyone who's concerned about their data being collected can just block Google-or-like-related domains. Rest is just making life of web developers/admins/tech company owners harder. Especially with these European intentions I frankly believe this is more of a political war against US and US-based companies. (No, I'm not from US as well)

> Rest is just making life of web developers/admins/tech company owners harder. Seriously? People spend tons money and time to track users. If you want to be GDPR-compliant, simply don't save unnecessary userdata and if you still feel the urge to do so, give users the option to control it. It's that easy. Any problems you get from it are of your own making. > Especially with these European intentions I frankly believ…

Many just want analytics and GA is the most convenient option. Though with GDPR now website owners (many offering free content and hosting a site where a user explicity browses into with their own will) need to learn law to make sure they are compliant, which obviously shouldn't be the case for such a simple task.

I'm not going into anyone's house and force them to give me their data, I'm collection anonymous data from people who, with their own will, visit my website/use my service. Don't want me to collect your anonymous data? Sure, don't visit my site/use my service then. No one forces anyone. Regulating what tech I can use on my own website? This is ridiculous.

Re: Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

#193

Post by bo1024 »

Spivak wrote: post #188
KingOfCoders wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is more nuanced: The problem is not the handing over (happens here too), but the fact EU citizens do not get informed this has happend and have no legal way to challenge this (especially concerning FISA/FISC). They have the opportunity to do so in the EU. Yes, this is what will happen with a setup of 3 entities, b/c FANG will not want to miss EU revenue.

Right but the solution is for there to be a treaty between the US and the EU that allows for this. Putting the burden on every foreign company to duplicate their infrastructure is stupid work to solve a human problem.

Or the US could adopt better privacy laws.

Re: Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

#194

Post by Semaphor »

XCSme wrote: post #170
Semaphor wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really such a rare occurrence for people to want to see statistics for a specific page or compare pages/articles? Because almost all new-wave analytics tools either do not support it, or it’s hidden and not easily discoverable.

Are you referring to stats such as time-spent on a specific page? From my experience, there are several thousands of people/companies using UXWizz and so far no one has requested this feature yet. But now that you mentioned, it seems like a pretty useful feature, especially if you can see top performing pages/articles. I think one reason why people don't care about the specific analytics for a page is that they usual…

General information. How many views/visitors over time, referrers, etc.

I did try to click on the top page lists, but those weren’t links. I found "Add segment" eventually, but at least on the demo page it’s not working (for the pages I tried, eventually I found a page with stats), and the interface is atrocious [0] for finding anything and breaks the site [1].

Our website is not posting articles to get people to buy other stuff, but the actual main part of the website (articles, and free or paid product tests; money is made both by selling tests and ads, with the ads not just being generic but specifically bought by companies with often contextual targeting). So my boss usually wants to know what articles do well (and not just from SE’s, we have a lot of repeat visitors), how soon interest drops, etc.

[0]: https://i.imgur.com/Buf0Vgd.png

[1]: https://i.imgur.com/wIO0d2B.png

Re: Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

#195

Post by nickpp »

heurisko wrote: post #183
nickpp wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Government surveillance on citizens has a long history of horrifying consequences, especially in Germany. What is the worst corporations are doing with our data? Better ads?!

> What is the worst corporations are doing with our data? Better ads?! There is often no clear dividing line between government and corporations. You give one freedom to abuse privacy and it will be used by the other.

You mean the governments will abuse the privacy, no matter who gathers the data. Then maybe our fight is with them, not businesses.

Re: Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

#196

Post by tantalor »

dbbk wrote: post #158
iqanq wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If my website askes users for their permission to use GA and they click yes then is that still illegal here? I see this as yes it's still illegal. The basis of regulations is that citizens are too stupid to consent to things even if they are fully informed. Whether that is a good or bad approach is up for debate.

That's not at all the point. The issue here is data residency.

Asking permission for something users don't understand is tantamount to not asking in the first place.

Re: Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

#197

Post by XCSme »

viro wrote: post #156
XCSme wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the main thing is not to send your customers' data to third-parties without their consent. It's usually fine if you use internally analytics for the purpose of running the company, it's not fine if you send those data to other companies that use it for marketing purposes.

That's not the problem here at all tho.

Isn't it? Isn't the problem that the data is sent to a third-party service outside EU (in the US) that doesn't offer the same data-protection rules as EU?

Re: Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

#198

Post by shadowgovt »

jklinger410 wrote: post #100
estaseuropano wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you download chrome. You agree to the analytics when you install/first open it. This is different from going on the site of your local company and feeding data into Google analytics involuntarily. The relevant legislation is about whether or not you agree to data being collected and shared, and the issue is that US companies are essentially data funnels for NSA & co.

You download a website when you visit it. Both analytics and chrome phone home information about your activity. They are the same.

Technologically, yes.

But if there's one thing we've learned from the GDPR, what matters is consumer perception, not the underlying tech. A web site isn't a browser.

Re: Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

#199

Post by Xelbair »

Spivak wrote: post #188
KingOfCoders wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is more nuanced: The problem is not the handing over (happens here too), but the fact EU citizens do not get informed this has happend and have no legal way to challenge this (especially concerning FISA/FISC). They have the opportunity to do so in the EU. Yes, this is what will happen with a setup of 3 entities, b/c FANG will not want to miss EU revenue.

Right but the solution is for there to be a treaty between the US and the EU that allows for this. Putting the burden on every foreign company to duplicate their infrastructure is stupid work to solve a human problem.

or USA could just.. stop having such ridiculous law in place.

Re: Use of Google Analytics declared illegal by French data protection authority

#200

Post by jdrc »

While i think these rulings are interesting in the sense of providing an opening to EU-grown businesses (if not too late), it does have a comical dimension in it. "Private" information is everywhere, it's in your DNS queries, which also gets propagated to servers in the evil US empire. Are we going to legislate DNS out of existence too? The EU seems to like having a completely private internet, but that's not gonna be possible unless we build one ourselves (how?)

There is a load of hyperbole in the EU privacy business, and it s coming from the german side which is super sensitive to it. But germany is a worldwide exception, their laws for censorship and privacy exist for specific reasons, and they shouldn't be propagating them everywhere.

Specifically in the analytics space, i don't think a lot of people are going to pay for analytics. A free verson makes sense because a lot of websites dont make money. Google provides it for free because they have a monetary incentive to keep marketers in their ecosystem, other companies don't. (Unless the other companies choose to monetize them just as google did)

I think the biggest loser however is going to be the decentralized open web.

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