Exciting news in analytics and more
Universal Analytics will be retired in 2023
Google wants to speed up the move to Analytics 4 and has announced that it will stop collecting data in Universal Analytics as early as 1 July 2023. The timeframe is unusually tight: Universal Analytics was released to the public in 2013, and website owners were given three years to migrate from “Classic Analytics”. Analytics 4 left beta in October 2020 but still lacks many features. Google’s blog explains what this will mean in practice. It also sets out the claimed advantages Analytics 4 offers over its predecessor in areas such as data collection, privacy and cross-platform tracking.
➡️ https://blog.google/products/marketingplatform/analytics/prepare-for-future-with-google-analytics-4/
Basic SEO reports in Analytics 4
Kseniia Kyslova has put together a guide to finding the same basic SEO reports in both Universal Analytics and Analytics 4. For readers who are used to Universal Analytics but have not yet started to get to grips with Analytics 4, the article is very useful.
➡️ https://seranking.com/blog/how-to-use-google-analytics-for-seo/
Klarna fined for shortcomings in its handling of personal data
The Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection (Integritetsskyddsmyndigheten) has imposed an administrative fine of SEK 7,500,000 on Klarna AB. Among other things, the company failed to state for what purpose, and on what legal basis, personal data was processed in one of its services. According to the authority, Klarna also provided misleading and incomplete information about who received various categories of personal data. Nor did it say to which countries outside the EU/EEA personal data was transferred.
➡️ https://www.imy.se/nyheter/sanktionsavgift-mot-klarna-efter-granskning/
Analytics 4 will no longer collect IP addresses
Google announced in a webinar that Analytics 4 will no longer collect and log IP addresses. It also emerged that in future it will be possible to configure Analytics 4 so that users’ IP addresses are only processed on servers within the EU. This does not fully solve the problems surrounding GDPR and Google Analytics, but it is still a very interesting development.
➡️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrfqv2BPits
Agreement between the US and the EU
A new agreement between the US and the EU on data transfers may be on the way, the European Union has announced. The two sides have agreed on the principles of a future deal. Since July 2020 there has been considerable legal uncertainty around data transfers, after the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that the previous EU-US Privacy Shield was contrary to European law. However, it will take time before an agreement enters into force, as new rules must be drawn up that fully comply with both US and EU legislation on data transfers.
The European Data Protection Board has welcomed the agreement in a press release. It stresses that this is only a first step in a long process of negotiations before a decision on an adequate level of protection can be taken. Only once a possible agreement has passed through several bodies can the European Commission take a decision that brings new rules into force.
➡️ https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/25/eu-and-us-agree-data-transfer-deal-to-replace-defunct-privacy-shield/
➡️ https://www.imy.se/nyheter/edpb-uttalar-sig-om-trans-atlantic-data-privacy-framework/