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Austria's data protection authority has found that Google Analytics is illegal

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Re: Austria's data protection authority has found that Google Analytics is illegal

#201

Post by BjoernKW »

sschueller wrote: post #106
frockington1 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the entire EU is going to be forced to use Open Office or some other equivalent? Non tech people will hate this and it will cripple many businesses that rely on Microsoft Excel. You'd be surprised how much of the world economy is based on emailing Excel sheets back and forth

This is a good thing. It means Europe will be forced to invest in improving open office, pay for development etc.

Fair enough, but until then, EU companies just won't be able to do business anymore?

Re: Austria's data protection authority has found that Google Analytics is illegal

#202

Post by BjoernKW »

2Gkashmiri wrote: post #65
frockington1 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the entire EU is going to be forced to use Open Office or some other equivalent? Non tech people will hate this and it will cripple many businesses that rely on Microsoft Excel. You'd be surprised how much of the world economy is based on emailing Excel sheets back and forth

Why not now force the EU to heavily invest in libreoffice so that it becomes a drop replacement to excel? I'm sure the European union can spare some euros to make it possible and this isn't even a utopian dream that can't be achieved. It just needs a good push

How exactly would you do that? EU institutions are notoriously unaccountable.

Besides, EU bodies just make the rules. They don't need to provide actionable alternatives or even have to comply with those rules themselves.

Re: Austria's data protection authority has found that Google Analytics is illegal

#203

Post by timeon »

Kstarek wrote: post #141
yosito wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you need analytics for your personal website?

because he wants them and Google offers them at a very reasonable price, forcing people to use inferior products is bad

> forcing people to use inferior products is bad

This is poor reasoning because it is missing context.

Re: Austria's data protection authority has found that Google Analytics is illegal

#204

Post by me_me_me »

catfishx wrote: post #121
bertman wrote: post #10

I really hope this will have consequences that shake up ad tech, but the cynic in me says: They're just going to add another disclaimer in their cookie banner and exactly nothing will happen.

The problem is that most people just dont read cookie banners and just click "Accept all"

The real problem is that there is no standardised cookie banner format mandated in EU.

There should be accept all, accept necessary, reject all options.

The cookie banner anti-patters are most infuriating game of gotcha since tiny moving X button on pop-up ads.

Re: Austria's data protection authority has found that Google Analytics is illegal

#205

Post by timeon »

stef25 wrote: post #179

As a European, frankly this is ridiculous. I'm as concerned as anyone about privacy issues but GDPR has just gone too far in the sense that nobody really understands it (I've undergone trainings with 2x previous employers and everyone just kind of shrugs that it doesn't make sense and we'll do our best bla bla bla ...) and that now they're trying to make an actual useful piece of software illegal ? And that for reaso…

I as EU citizen am happy about it. I do not care about any marketing department that is lazy to move from cross site voyeurism.

Re: Austria's data protection authority has found that Google Analytics is illegal

#206

Post by amelius »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #144
amelius wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does the consumer know it is zero-knowledge?

> How does the consumer know it is zero-knowledge? The courts, not consumers, are the ultimate deciders in this situation. Companies say so under oath and a judge weighs the evidence.

How does the consumer decide if they can/should sue?

Re: Austria's data protection authority has found that Google Analytics is illegal

#207

Post by bendiksolheim »

stef25 wrote: post #179

As a European, frankly this is ridiculous. I'm as concerned as anyone about privacy issues but GDPR has just gone too far in the sense that nobody really understands it (I've undergone trainings with 2x previous employers and everyone just kind of shrugs that it doesn't make sense and we'll do our best bla bla bla ...) and that now they're trying to make an actual useful piece of software illegal ? And that for reaso…

Changes are always difficult, no matter how small or large they are.

As a European, I welcome this wholeheartedly! It makes my daily job harder (as a programmer), but it’s needed to stop this insane industry of using private information as a currency. Most people seem to don’t care, but that is mostly because they don’t understand the consequences of this.

GDPR isn’t really that hard to understand. If you need to gather PII, you need the proper approval from the end user to do so. If you don’t have the proper approval, you can’t store it. Also, don’t gather information you don’t need. If you only need page views, don’t store IP, resolution, localisation and all these things in addition. This is common sense, not science. In fact, you should be happy to have these restrictions, because it lowers the risks in case of data breaches.

The real problem with GDPR is that we’re so used to violate peoples rights that we have completely forgotten how we should behave.

Re: Austria's data protection authority has found that Google Analytics is illegal

#208

Post by soneil »

denton-scratch wrote: post #184
geewee wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not true. Transfer to third countries is legal, as long as you _properly_ inform people of the risks that it poses, and it's completely voluntary: > finally, if a transfer of personal data is envisaged to a third country that isn’t the subject of an Adequacy Decision and if appropriate safeguards are absent, a transfer can be made based on a number of derogations for specific situations for example, where an i…

GP said: "You are free to share any data with Google that you wish." That is not consistent with GDPR, and that's what I was saying. And the Austrian court has confirmed that. The court has not said that it's illegal to use GA.

Both takes appear to be missing the entire privacy issue - you are free to share your data with the US if you wish. You are not free to share my data with the US.

GP is correct, they are not free to share "any data", where their right to share "any data" and my right to privacy conflict.

We all love our freedoms - but we have to respect that other people have freedoms too - and we don't have the freedom to take theirs.

Re: Austria's data protection authority has found that Google Analytics is illegal

#209

Post by bryanrasmussen »

tremon wrote: post #196
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I understand the ruling though this pertains to the fact that data is transferred to the U.S, it may be that if they changed to just using servers in the EU it would still be declared illegal but a new case would have to go through to make this declaration?

No, the CLOUD act was created specifically because Microsoft previously denied to comply with a US court order on the basis that the data was stored in Ireland. The US chose to compel a national company to produce the data instead of using an international data request, and as a result no US-based company can comply with the GDPR. https://cdt.org/insights/microsoft-ireland-case-can-a-us-war... https://en.wikipedia.or…

ah thanks, now I understand. Well looks like Google's screwed then.

Re: Austria's data protection authority has found that Google Analytics is illegal

#210

Post by jacquesm »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #150
jacquesm wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone 'on the ground' I see things moving in a much more uniform direction than where they were in the past, the differences are not large enough to make a fuss about. The thing to note is that the GDPR is a minimum set, local law is free to exceed the GDPR.

There is currently an EU member challenging the concept of European law’s primacy. Meanwhile, implementation of other courts’ rulings are delayed by years between jurisdictions. There is zero chance, for instance, that anyone in Greece or Portugal or Ireland will be impacted, judicially, by this decision for several years. That’s better than before. But it’s far from e.g. a U.S. federal court ruling in California’s i…

> There is zero chance, for instance, that anyone in Greece or Portugal or Ireland will be impacted, judicially, by this decision for several years.

I don't think this is true. The impact will be felt immediately all over Europe, in fact it is already in the news here and people are already discussing dropping GA from websites:

https://www.nu.nl/tech/6178229/google-analytics-binnenkort-m...

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