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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

#91
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some courts beg to disagree with your position: https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/31/website_fine_google_f...

Oh, wow, didn’t realize 1 website had been fined $100. The legal water is boiling!

The fine is only $100 if your lawyers and legal team work for free.

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

#92
post #70

I have just posted this link for everyone on the Slack of the french web agency - specialized in Google/Facebook/Instagram campaigns - I work for. Not one reaction. I was left on seen.

I've found that most agencies love to preach that they are data driven, but in reality they only care about the perception of being data oriented. They won't care until clients start asking questions, then it will be a panic.

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

#93
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some courts beg to disagree with your position: https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/31/website_fine_google_f...

Oh, wow, didn’t realize 1 website had been fined $100. The legal water is boiling!

Yeah, that's definitely a slap on the wrist. But now that website needs to stop doing that, or it would face actual consequences.

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

#94

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?

This roundup has a lot great & lightweight options[0].

[0]: https://stackdiary.com/open-source-analytics/

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

#95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need GA for a website either. Many websites probably don't even need any form of analytics at all.

Do you really think we are in a better place now with GPDR and all these annoying cookie banners all over the place?

Overall, yes. At the very least it's been incredibly enlightening. It's amazing how random websites have 50 "partners" all of which for some reason need to know what I'm doing.

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

#96
post #89

Google Analytics is the best analytics tool out there. By getting their companies off GA, European governments are weakening their industry. This probably holds true for many SAAS products. Many of the best are from the USA. Forbidding European companies to use them is a desaster for the European internet industry.

Google Analytics is hugely overrated. Most people don't use it properly, many browsers block it entirely, and you can usually do a better job just by looking at server logs.

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

#97
post #49

There are plenty of privacy respecting analytics out there - Plausible, Matomo or Simple Analytics. Depending on what your actual needs are, you can also just use something like GoAccess, logwatch, Splunk or multitail to check your logs and use those for analytics information. In one of my previous jobs the marketing department complained about Google Analytics not working on one of our pages. GA hadn't been working…

> While I get that someone people are slightly foaming at the mouth because of GDPR (and this starts an entire debate about an aging political population that doesn't understand technology AT ALL) going overboard, my question is - do we actually use all the analytics that are provided by GA?

Who are these people foaming about GDPR?

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

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need GA for a website either. Many websites probably don't even need any form of analytics at all.

Do you really think we are in a better place now with GPDR and all these annoying cookie banners all over the place?

Cookie banners were already a thing before GDPR.

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

#100

CrUX data will be next. Using to be Chrome considered illegal in Germany.

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.

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