Will Google Analytics be banned?

Complaints about Google Analytics in Austria

The uproar began in Austria. The national privacy watchdog DSB received a complaint from activist Max Schrems; president of privacy organization NOYB. Through Google Analytics, personal data (IP addresses and unique IDs) of European users would be sent to servers in the US. This has been officially banned since 2020 because personal data in the U.S. is less protected than in the European Union. For example, intelligence agencies there could access the data without the user's consent. On Jan. 13, the DSB concluded that Google Analytics is indeed in violation of the General Data Protection Regulation (AVG). If that ruling is adopted at the European level, it will affect millions of websites.

Research in the Netherlands

Following the DSB ruling, the Personal Data Authority (AP) is currently investigating 2 complaints about the use of Google Analytics in the Netherlands. These have also been filed by NOYB. After completion of the investigation, probably within a few weeks already, the AP will decide whether Google Analytics in its current form will be banned or allowed in the Netherlands.

Response from Google

According to Google, a ban would be unjustified. Google Analytics would meet all the requirements required under the AVG to send data to the US. For example, users can:

• anonymize IP addresses;
• disable data collection on pages;
• delete data from Analytics servers by submitting a request;
• self-select how long data is retained.

According to Google, all data is sent encrypted to the US and no user profiles are created by users or themselves either. However, the DSB ruled that this is all insufficient to ensure privacy.

Major disaster or false alarm?

A ban on the use of Google Analytics could have major consequences. All U.S. providers of software and services that process personal data will then be scrutinized. For example, Salesforce, Hubspot and Adobe.

Yet the rulings of the DSB and AP need not lead directly to a ban. In fact, something similar happened last year. Following privacy complaints, the AP recommended that Google software no longer be used in education in the Netherlands. Google then modified some services and now the software is still being used in classrooms. So perhaps after some changes, Google Analytics may continue to measure our websites as well.

Google Analytics ban creates opportunities

Companies and marketers have faced a surge in privacy measures in recent years. A ban on Google Analytics would be a new stumbling block, as it is estimated to be used by some 29 million websites worldwide.

So Google Analytics is overwhelmingly the most popular tool for measuring website traffic, but certainly not the only one. There are plenty of variants, both free and paid. Using such a new tool presents opportunities:

• Because the numbers are presented in a different way, you may come to new insights.
• Some tools you can link to your existing CMS or CRM, which offers numerous possibilities.

Respect for privacy necessary

Privacy has never seemed more important than it does today. However, digitization makes safeguarding it a lot more difficult. With or without Google Analytics; as a company you are responsible for the security of all privacy-sensitive data in and around your website or web application. It is therefore important that you realize this and pay a lot of attention to it. If you then radiate that to the outside world, the customer's trust in you will be greatly increased.

So perhaps with a few adjustments Google will manage to avoid a ban and we will all have a report from Google Analytics in front of us again next month. But whether that works or not, at least there is no reason to panic.