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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

#21

Post by heurisko »

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)

> 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)

No, Germany is a big leader in the EU. They are very sensitive to issues around privacy, from the DDR era.

They don't want private corporations having DDR-like folders of information on citizens.

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

#22

Post by criddell »

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)

I have somewhat of the opposite opinion. I use Google search and Gmail and think they are good products. When GPDR was first being rolled out I was convinced that it was going to destroy the web and ruin a lot of what I like about it. I was wrong and now I’d like to see the US provide similar protections for consumers.

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

#23

Post by Engineering-MD »

robertlagrant wrote: post #14
nottorp wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> can just block Google-or-like-related domains Got a grandmother?

Who's concerned about Google collecting data? No.

Surely that is to do with her knowledge and education around privacy and data collection. Ignorance to the issue doesn’t mean we should ignore people like this.

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

#24

Post by dumbfounder »

GnarfGnarf wrote: post #3

The onus is on Google to suspend or anonymize Analytics. Individual Website managers can't be expected to discriminate based on geographical origin, as the document seems to imply.

If Google doesn't offer the ability then it is up to the customer to not use GA until Google complies. I hate this ruling, but implying it's just Google's job to do this and everyone else should just do nothing is crazy.

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

#26

Post by wongarsu »

aftergibson wrote: post #11

Is anyone using an alternative that provides some basic analytics and isn't likely to get me in legal hot water in the future? I've already offloaded Google Fonts due to the German ruling. I'm happy to self-host piwik if needed, but could that fall foul of regulators?

Self hosted Matomo/piwik is pretty good. You probably want to make sure it's on servers in the EU owned by a EU company (Hetzner, OVH, Griscale, etc). Alternatively you can configure it in a way that avoids collecting PII [1] (which also removes the need for consent popup, privacy policy etc). You won't get much info about repeat visitors that way, but I imagine it's quite usable for many use cases.

1: https://matomo.org/faq/new-to-piwik/how-do-i-use-matomo-anal...

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

#27

Post by lb_ »

aftergibson wrote: post #11

Is anyone using an alternative that provides some basic analytics and isn't likely to get me in legal hot water in the future? I've already offloaded Google Fonts due to the German ruling. I'm happy to self-host piwik if needed, but could that fall foul of regulators?

Yes! I'm currently using https://usefathom.com/, works pretty great

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

#28

Post by tsm »

aftergibson wrote: post #11

Is anyone using an alternative that provides some basic analytics and isn't likely to get me in legal hot water in the future? I've already offloaded Google Fonts due to the German ruling. I'm happy to self-host piwik if needed, but could that fall foul of regulators?

I just started using Goatcounter for a noncommercial site (music history research blog) and I'm happy with it. All I wanted was a glorified hit counter.

It doesn't have the goal conversion metrics and other advanced features of GA, so obviously not a drop-in replacement for all use cases.

https://www.goatcounter.com/

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

#29

Post by mtmail »

aftergibson wrote: post #11

Is anyone using an alternative that provides some basic analytics and isn't likely to get me in legal hot water in the future? I've already offloaded Google Fonts due to the German ruling. I'm happy to self-host piwik if needed, but could that fall foul of regulators?

https://usefathom.com/ (what we use), plausible.io, umami.is

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

#30

Post by SquareWheel »

waffleiron wrote: post #19
SquareWheel wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worth noting that GA4 does this already. GA3 (AKA Universal Analytics) requires owners to set the anonymize_ip flag though. I agree that Google should have retroactively changed this policy for GA3 accounts, even if it would cause some breakage. https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2763052?hl=en

The English post from CNIL makes it clear it's not just IP that's the issue: >In this context, a unique identifier is assigned to each visitor. This identifier (which constitutes personal data) and the associated data are transferred by Google to the United States.

Fair point. The English link was not yet posted when I read the (translated) article, so the nature of the personal data wasn't that clear.
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