Because stopping Google Analytics will raise costs for businesses. Aicel’s alarm
For the Italian association of e-commerce companies: "The stop of Google Analytics brings companies back to a level of approximation that had stopped ten years ago"
The stop to Google Analytics is an earthquake for Italian online businesses.
Last week the Italian Privacy Guarantor found that the use of the analysis tool for Google website results by a local web publisher does not comply with EU data protection rules [Gdpr] due to the transfer of user data to the United States. The latter country "lacks an adequate level of protection" underlines the Guarantor in the press release.
Google Analytics is the web analytics tool provided by Google to website managers that allows them to analyze detailed user statistics in order to optimize the services rendered and to monitor their marketing campaigns.
"For many Italian companies with websites and for the entire online advertising system, which had reached a high level of sophistication in recent years, the stop of Google Analytics brings companies back to a level of approximation that had stopped ten years ago. ”Manuela Borgese, vice president of Aicel (Italian electronic commerce association) and lawyer specialized in privacy and new technologies, commented to Bitmat.it .
As stated on the site, Aicel (Italian Association of Electronic Commerce), is the only national association that represents those who work in e-commerce. The associates (over 1200 companies) are in fact merchants or 'shopkeepers' who offer their services and products online.
"Not only that: the costs for promotional activities based on personalized content based on user preferences will be tripled following the decision of the Italian Privacy Guarantor" added the Aicel representative.
All the details.
THE STOP OF THE PRIVACY GUARANTOR AT GOOGLE ANALYTICS
The Privacy Guarantor has established that Caffeine that uses the Google Analytics service, without the guarantees provided by the EU Regulation, violates the data protection legislation because it transfers to the United States, without adequate guarantees.
But the measure does not exclusively concern Caffeine. The authority has in fact extended the reference to all Italian website managers.
THE CONSEQUENCES FOR BUSINESSES
"The impossibility of using these tools, which are so fundamental for marketing policies, entails a series of serious consequences, technically unsustainable, especially in a phase in which the economic sector is already heavily tried" says the lawyer. Manuela Borgese.
According to the president Aicel “For these purposes the most sophisticated digital marketing tools are essential and strategic in an extremely extended scenario, both geographically and with respect to the condensation of operators. Depriving commercial operators of these tools translates into a competitive imbalance with respect to those who, on the other hand, have such shortcuts ".
THE ISSUE OF DATA TRANSFER BETWEEN EU AND US
The squeeze against Google Analytics comes following a series of complaints filed in August 2020 by the European privacy campaign group noyb, which targeted 101 websites with regional operators it had identified as sending data to the United States via integrations. Google Analytics and / or Facebook Connect always reports TechCrunch .
The complaints follow the historic ruling of the EU Court of Justice in July 2020, which invalidated the data transfer agreement between the EU and the US known as the Privacy Shield.
COMING SOON THE SUBSTITUTE OF THE PRIVACY SHIELD
Since then, both sides of the Atlantic have been negotiating a replacement for the Privacy Shield.
On March 25, Presidents Joe Biden and Ursula Von Der Leyen signed a preliminary agreement between the US and the EU on the transfer and processing of personal data .
However, the legal details of the envisaged data transfer framework have yet to be finalized before it comes into effect. This means that the use of US-based cloud services remains wrapped in legal risk for EU customers.
Therefore, pending the new agreement, the Italian Privacy Guarantor "invites all data controllers to verify the compliance of the methods of use of cookies and other tracking tools used on their websites, with particular attention to Google Analytics and other services similar, with the legislation on the protection of personal data ".
THE NEW US-EU TRANSATLANTIC AGREEMENT MUST BE ADOPTED
“So today the solution can only and exclusively be of a political nature. In order to avoid the risks reported and to unblock the operations of suppliers, given the absence of alternatives, it is essential that the procedures for adopting the already announced new US-EU transatlantic agreement for the protection of personal data be facilitated "concludes Borgese .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/perche-lo-stop-a-google-analytics-alzera-i-costi-per-le-imprese-lallarme-di-aicel/ on Wed, 06 Jul 2022 08:55:12 +0000.