Google Analytics In Europe Accused Of Playing With Data Protection

The Italian Supervisory Authority has banned this service. It says that Google's service violates data protection laws because it transfers users' data to the US, where there is not an adequate level of data protection. Google, is the service that provides web analytics to the most visited websites around the world. Analytics is facing difficulties in Europe. After Austria and France, Italy has now also called this service a violation of the European Union's (EU) Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Because of this Google Analytics has been banned in Italy. It will not be able to track users visiting Italian websites.

The Italian Supervisory Authority has asked all Italian websites to remove Google Analytics. A time limit of 90 days has been given for this. Earlier in February, a French regulator said Google Analytics risks passing user data from French websites to US intelligence services. All websites in France were also ordered to comply with EU regulations.

Austria’s Data Protection Authority also said earlier this year that Google Analytics was in violation of GDPR law. Nearly two years ago, the EU’s Court of Justice in a major decision barred companies in EU countries from transferring their data to the US using a framework called the Privacy Shield. No statement has been given by Google in this matter. However, the company has discontinued its Universal Analytics service, which collects large amounts of data for web analytics. Instead, the company launched the Google Analytics 4 service to comply with privacy laws and use anonymized data.

However, the EU has also expressed apprehensions about this service. The Italian authority has said in its decision, “An IP address is personal data and cannot be changed.” Local analytics service providers in Europe will get an opportunity to grow their business after the restrictions are imposed by European companies.