Is Google Analytics GDPR compliant?

Google Analytics and GDPR

Is Google Analytics GDPR Compliant?

Nowadays Universal Analytics and GA4 are not compliant with GDPR since GA belongs to an American company.

Google Analytics was declared illegal in France and Austria. In other European countries, it is not illegal for legal issues.

  1. Based on GDPR and ePrivacy Directive, Google Analytics requires consent to track since:
    1. Google Analytics uses cookies.
    2. Google Analytics tracks individually.
  2. As Google Analytics cookies require consent under GDPR, you can’t track 100% of your traffic and conversions, so you’re not going to see all this “hidden traffic” in your Google analytics report.
  3. Google Analytics cookies as all cookies must be added on the user’s terminal. And as GDPR states, if you are going to add cookies or whatever piece of code to the user’s terminal, you must request consent.

In light of the recent GDPR updates, you may be wondering how to make your Google Analytics account compliant.

What is the GDPR?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a European Union (EU) regulation that seeks to protect the personal data of EU citizens. It applies to organizations that process or store the data of EU citizens and imposes stringent requirements on how data must be managed and protected.

What changes did Google make to its Google Analytics service to comply with the GDPR?

Google has implemented various changes and features in Google Analytics to help customers comply with the GDPR. These include data retention controls, IP address anonymization, consent mode, data sharing controls, and more.

What action should I take to make sure my website is GDPR compliant?

Yoshould review your website’s data collectioand use policies to ensure they comply with the GDPR. You should also update your privacy policy to reflect the GDPR’s requirements, and if you are using Google Analytics, you should configure it to comply with the GDPR’s requirements.

We’ve checked that asking for consent each time a user visits a website provokes fatigue in the users, so they reject cookies by default.

What GDPR matters for Google Analytics

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is an EU privacy law created to put individuals in control of their personal data. In compliance with this law, Google Analytics has updated its features to provide privacy-first analytics

This means ensuring greater consent and transparency from users while collecting data, anonymizing by default, and providing the ability to opt-out at any time. As companies come under increasing pressure to be more privacy-focused, GDPR is an important step for businesses in creating a secure atmosphere for customers’ data that can be trusted. For Google Analytics users, it’s now essential to stay up-to-date with the regulations imposed through GDPR and ensure that privacy policies are as clear as possible – ultimately helping your customers feel safer when using your service.

Which data do I lose if a make my Google Analytics compliant with GDPR?

Based on GDPR and ePrivacy Directive, Google Analytics requires consent to track since:

  1. Google Analytics uses cookies.
  2. Google Analytics tracks individually.

As Google Analytics cookies require consent under GDPR, you can’t track 100% of your traffic and conversions, so you’re not going to see all this “hidden traffic” in your Google analytics report.

If you make your Google Analytics compliant with GDPR, you will lose any data that is personally identifiable, including IP addresses, cookie identifiers, and other user-level and event-level data that could be used to identify an individual. You will also lose demographic and interest data, which is collected from third-party sources. For this reason, it’s important to work with cookieless tracking solutions, you can access to data that you can’t access with a cookie-based technology.

If you make your Google Analytics compliant witGDPR, you will lose access to the following reports:

– Demographics and Interests Reports

– User ID Reports

– IP Address Reports

– Other Location Reports

– Advertising Reports

– Benchmarking Reports

– Remarketing Reports

– Data Import Reports

– User Explorer Reports

– Multi-Channel Funnels Reports

– Cohort Analysis Reports

FAQ's about GDPR and google analytics compliance

If you’re a Google Analytics user, you know that compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is essential. GDPR’s focus on data protection and privacy means you need to make sure your Google Analytics data is collected and stored legally. With that in mind, understanding the fundamentals of GDPR can help you ensure compliance with Google Analytics. One great way to start is by exploring the many GDPR FAQs available from trusted sources like the U.S. Department of Commerce or the European Commission. From there, familiarizing yourself with how to use anonymization features within GA, among other resources for personal data security, will help keep your data protected and compliant with gdpr faqs.

Why use a Privacy-first Analytics solution

The answer is to use a different analytics tool that is GDPR-compliant and doesn’t rely on cookies. Take a look at SEAL’s Cookie Tool GDPR as a Google Analytics Alternative. It’s cheaper than trying to make GA GDPR compliant and you won’t have to worry about biased or sampled data. Sign up for a free trial today and see how it works for you.

1. SEAL Metrics offers more detailed insights into how users interact with content, such as how long they spend on each page and the paths they take to get there. This can provide more context for understanding user behavior.

2. SEAL Metrics offers predictive analytics capabilities, which allow marketers to anticipate user behavior and plan ahead.

3. SEAL Metrics is designed to be used across multiple platforms, which allows marketers to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns across multiple channels.

4. SEAL Metrics is designed to be used in real-time, allowing marketers to make informed decisions quickly.

On the other hand, Google Analytics:

1.Based on GDPR and ePrivacy Directive, Google Analytics requires consent to track since:

1.1. Google Analytics uses cookies.

1.2. Google Analytics tracks individually.

2. As Google Analytics cookies require consent under GDPR, you can’t track 100% of your traffic and conversions, so you’re not going to see all this “hidden traffic” in your Google analytics report.

3. Google Analytics cookies as all cookies must be added on the user’s terminal. And as GDPR states, if you are going to add cookies or whatever piece of code to the user’s terminal, you must request consent.

The benefits of being GDPR compliant

GDPR and ePrivacy compliance are increasingly becoming public industry standards for almost all businesses. GDPR compliance has many great benefits, both in terms of protecting customer data and enhancing customer trust and loyalty

Not only does GDPR-compliant status provide customers with the assurance that their personal information is secure and safely stored, but it also adds efficiency to processes such as email marketing where GDPR-compliant companies can more quickly start campaigns. GDPR and ePrivacy-compliant businesses also have greater chances of being held liable in court due to their licence to store and process consumer information under GDPR’s legal protections, ultimately helping them save time, money, and resources if they ever face litigation.

Trusted by EU Marketers

Track 100% of your web traffic and conversions without tracking people

Privacy-first web analytics

SEAL Metrics™️ is a Cookieless Tracking Solution for Marketing teams who need to see all conversions per source, campaign, medium, keyword to optimize their campaigns.

Tablet with analytics graphs
Icon Running in 5 min
Icon Super privacy
Icon 100% of my traffic
Icon Legal peace of mind