

German government officials trying to ban Google Analytics - KWD
http://eu.techcrunch.com/2009/11/24/google-analytics-illegal-germany/

======
Luc
I have read through the comments on Techcrunch, and I don't think anyone there
gets it - unless _I_ am the one with the misunderstanding.

Installing Google Analytics on a website allows Google to track users visiting
the site. Can Google not follow this same user across different GA-enabled
sites (e.g. through a cookie)? And can Google not connect this user with
search terms entered on its website? If that is the case, that seems to be a
significant amount of data that would potentially fall foul of European
privacy laws.

The commenters on Techcrunch, however, seem to think the issue is with the
users of Google Analytics (the web site operators) gaining private data. It
isn't. It's with Google getting this data.

~~~
brown9-2
Analytics sets it's cookie under the site's domain name, so it is not
available to other GA-enabled sites.

edit: whoops, I misunderstood your question

~~~
Luc
I don't think that's what the Germans are worried about (though it's what most
commenters on Techcrunch _think_ they are worried about). I think it's about
Google having access to this data, and being able to link visits and search
terms - not the _users_ of Google Analytics.

~~~
fhars
The main criticisms are that GA collect users' data without consent, without
telling them what they collect and without giving them a simple way to get
their data reliably deleted, all of which are forbidden according to german
law. And before people start complaining that GA doens't collect personal
information: there seems to be an emerging legal consensus in germany that an
IP address is in fact a personally identifiable information. Nobody has ever
been taken to court for running an apache with the default logging
configuration, but there are people who think that that is an offence worth a
fine of up to €50.000,-- too, just like running GA.

For those who can read german, here is a better text:
[http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Bundesdatenschutzbeaf...](http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Bundesdatenschutzbeaftragter-
kritisiert-Usertracking-bei-Krankenkassen-864903.html)

~~~
ubernostrum
And soon this will be the way the whole EU works. And then the advertising
market will collapse there and maybe they'll decide to come up with privacy
laws that make sense...

~~~
blue1
Not EU, this is how _Europe_ works (certain parts of it at least, and
certainly where I live). There is a certain political culture in european
states that causes a sense of unease when anything of no trivial size is not
"regulated". The "regulation" instinct is almost theological, it does not stem
from problems or desired results or policies. When something important is not
"regulated" somehow, it is perceived as potentially dangerous.

------
brown9-2
_The government officials are particularly wary about the information Google
is able to collect on websites of health insurance companies and the like,
saying Google could conceivably create profiles of people that would include
information about their interests, lifestyles, consumption patterns, political
and sexual preferences._

Then shouldn't the regulators be looking at the health insurance companies,
making sure they aren't using tools like this (or exporting this usage data to
other companies), rather than the provider of this free service?

------
ugh
The way I understand it, saving any personal data without consent (or warning?
Not sure.) is illegal in Germany. And, far as I can tell, IP adresses are
considered - like telephone numbers or email adresses - personal data.

Now, as far as I can tell, there has never been a court case about Google
Analytics or similar solutions. I know that already, some providers of
analytics solutions are anonymizing the saved IP adresses. Google Analytics
(and many others) don't do that. So the German government might just have a
case.

~~~
ugh
Just to clarify myself here: I think the owner of the site is allowed to store
the data, she is just not allowed to hand it over to any third parties (in
this case: Google).

------
Create
but webtrekk.net is allowed???

(A sampling of clients include Allianz[insurance], Esprit[lifestyle],
Siemens[almost anything], Flatex, Map24[location], Bosch, and Die Zeit[pol].)

------
hop
This is rediculous. GA is simply a log of ip addresses that request data from
your server. Its no different than a hotel keeping a guest log.

If you weren't explicitly giving away you ip address, there's no way the
server could send you data.

