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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

#561

Post by altairprime »

fprct wrote: post #449
lmkg wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The original ruling was nuanced, and this ruling is clarifying some gray area inside of it. The ruling on Schrems II (the court case that struck down Privacy Shield) did not state that SCCs on their own would be sufficient. It said that SCCs + "additional safeguards" would be allowable. There have been several rulings already that SCCs on their own are not sufficient. The "additional safeguards" must include a risk a…

Wait, wouldn't that imply that EU startups can't host their infra on GCP, AWS or Azure? I'm not even talking about analytics - just about simple user email required to login would be problematic now.

Yes, that is correct.

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

#562

Post by nickpp »

chaxor wrote: post #550
vault wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The USA, of course. Don't forget you vote for your government, not for Google's CEO.

"The government has a defect . It's potentially democratic. Corporations have no defect - They're pure tyrannies." - Noam Chomsky

Still waiting for those "pure tyrannies". Meanwhile every damn thing I am using in my daily life, from my car, computer to the furnace heating my house - was made by a corporation.

And I did live under communism, with absolutely zero corporations. Then I knew tyranny every day. And shortages.

Did Noam Chomsky live under communism by any chance?

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

#563

Post by FredPret »

tshaddox wrote: post #475
someotherperson wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and when you go shopping and pay with cash in a store with no surveillance, your shopping habits are being shared against your wishes with a random third party (the external company bookkeeper). It's disingenuous to have problems with websites collecting entirely anonymous browsing data -- that goes beyond any arguments for privacy and just steers into "yelling at clouds" territory.

That’s bad too. There are also things happening in the world that are much worse, like people getting murdered. All these things can be bad at the same time.

External bookkeepers are bad now!?

Information is valuable, but it is not holy.

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

#564

Post by chaxor »

einpoklum wrote: post #479
nickpp wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google's CEO has pretty much ZERO powers over me. The USA government is (largely) democratic and (mostly) obeys laws. But my government... is not the one I voted for and I trust it 0%. Because I do not live in the West but in one of the great majority of countries with a corrupt, abusive government. The democratic governments of the West are the exception, not the rule.

> The USA government is (largely) democratic Well, if I may nitpick, it's a federal republic rather than a democracy... More to the point though, there was this study at Princeton U about the correlation between US government policy and popular opinion on a variety of subjects which found that public opinion correlates very poorly with government policy / legislation passed, but opinions among the very-rich correlate…

The effect you mentioned (democratic deficit) is also inversely correlated with unionization (which positively correlates with public engagement with government). So it could be that the reduction in population median household income due to reduction in unionization (and increase in top earner profit / larger inequalities) causes an exacerbation of the effect, with the observation you mentioned.

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

#565

Post by sam0x17 »

This is really good news for consumer privacy everywhere. I was just in a meeting with some marketers in my org and they were quite dismayed so I'm conversely quite happy. I've been saying for years that content is king and tracking will only be sustainable for so long. It's only a matter of time before laws like this are the norm rather than the exception globally.

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

#566

Post by AlanYx »

swlkr wrote: post #498

The EU privacy regulations seem to have a side effect of creating a de facto EU internet, where EU competitors can become dominant because they pay closer attention to changes in law vs north american or chinese counterparts. It’s almost like a more subtle version of china or russia’s firewall

>The EU privacy regulations seem to have a side effect of creating a de facto EU internet, where EU competitors can become dominant because they pay closer attention to changes in law vs north american or chinese counterparts.

Within EU government and diplomatic circles, there's actually a term for this: the "Brussels Effect". People who use the term "Brussels Effect" believe that by imposing aggressive rules first, the EU software industry will have a first-mover advantage and a kind of partial "firewall" against some foreign competitors.

In my experience, the potential downsides of the "Brussels Effect" are rarely considered by these people (e.g., reduced competition within the EU, leading to increased costs for other businesses; overseas web service providers being forced to block EU customers, leading to reduced availability of services, etc.).

Another area where you see the same "Brussels Effect" in EU policy/legislative circles are recent moves towards rather aggressvie regulation of "artificial intelligence". Not just the recent proposal that was tabled, but also the CAHAI work towards a binding international instrument.

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

#567

Post by youngtaff »

Dave3of5 wrote: post #133

Don't quite understand this at all. Can we cut through the clickbait and see what's wrong here. 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. Also is it illegal because there is an anonymised id number created when you send data. If that's the case then it's not just GA that's a problem but any tracking system i.e. Pl…

> Can we cut through the clickbait and see what's wrong here. 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.

If you've sought the visitors consent then yes it's legal

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

#568

Post by toqy »

tshaddox wrote: post #475
someotherperson wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and when you go shopping and pay with cash in a store with no surveillance, your shopping habits are being shared against your wishes with a random third party (the external company bookkeeper). It's disingenuous to have problems with websites collecting entirely anonymous browsing data -- that goes beyond any arguments for privacy and just steers into "yelling at clouds" territory.

That’s bad too. There are also things happening in the world that are much worse, like people getting murdered. All these things can be bad at the same time.

> That’s bad too

In what way? I agree that personally tracking an individual and using psychology tricks and whatnot to trick them into buying stuff is bad, but if it's just a company knowing what works well for them, I don't see the argument.

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

#569

Post by bcrosby95 »

rewq4321 wrote: post #360
gspencley wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're within your rights to create and offer whatever kind of service you want. As an end-user, however, any data what-so-ever sent to a 3rd party without my knowledge or consent is too much. There is no such thing as "the right amount." I'm OK with websites using self-hosted tools such as Matomo as long as the data never leaves their servers. Analytics is important to any business. But I choose to do business with…

This seems very impractical given the way the internet currently works. Most startups use dozens of SaaS products, let alone more basic/foundational things like global CDNs. You're being logged at every step of the process if only to prevent spam/DDoS/etc. What you're asking for would require a fundamental restructuring of the internet, and of software business models, and a lot of other stuff. I can't see that happe…

Not only the internet, this is impractical given how any business works. Even a brick and mortar store is sharing aggregate customer buying habits with its supplier based upon products it buys from them.

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

#570

Post by Kalium »

mediascreen wrote: post #520
waffleiron wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think we (in the EU) will soon realise the bizarre consequences of these regulations. Could this not also be said about US regulations such as CLOUD act, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and Executive Order 12333. I don't think it's accurate to solely blame the EU when this is in response to legislation that gives/gave the US access to all types of personal data on European citizens.

I agree. Hopefully this is temporary and they can figure out a reasonable compromise. As a Swede I do feel that parts of the EU (with Germany and France) are heading in the wrong direction. Those are not countries famous for their entrepreneurship and it seems like their first instincts in relation to the US are usually protectionist.

I can tell you that there's a deep-seated suspicion in the US that for France, much of GDPR's purpose is about enabling protectionism.

The logic is understandable. Surely, if you just get rid of the abusive American monopolies the home-grown companies will take their rightful places... right?

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