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• Google Analytics 4 and GDPR : Everything You Need to Know

  17 mai 2022, par Erin

  Four years have passed since the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR, also known as DSGVO in German, and RGPD in French) took effect.

  That’s ample time to get compliant, especially for an organisation as big and innovative as Google. Or is it ? 

  If you are wondering how GDPR affects Google Analytics 4 and what the compliance status is at present, here’s the lowdown. 

  Is Google Analytics 4 GDPR Compliant ?

  No. As of mid-2022, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) isn’t fully GDPR compliant. Despite adding extra privacy-focused features, GA4 still has murky status with the European regulators. After the invalidation of the Privacy Shield framework in 2020, Google is yet to regulate EU-US data protection. At present, the company doesn’t sufficiently protect EU citizens’ and residents’ data against US surveillance laws. This is a direct breach of GDPR.

  Google Analytics and GDPR : a Complex Relationship 

  European regulators have scrutinised Google since GDPR came into effect in 2018.

  While the company took steps to prepare for GDPR provisions, it didn’t fully comply with important regulations around user data storage, transfer and security.

  The relationship between Google and EU regulators got more heated after the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) invalidated the Privacy Shield — a leeway Google used for EU-US data transfers. After 2020, GDPR litigation against Google followed. 

  This post summarises the main milestones in this story and explains the consequences for Google Analytics users. 

  

  2018 : Google Analytics Meets GDPR 

  In 2018, the EU adopted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) — a set of privacy and data security laws, covering all member states. Every business interacting with EU citizens and/or residents had to comply.

  GDPR harmonised data protection laws across member states and put down extra provisions for what constitutes sensitive personal information (or PII). Broadly, PII includes any data about the person’s :

  • Racial or ethnic origin 
  • Employment status 
  • Religious or political beliefs
  • State of health 
  • Genetic or biometric data 
  • Financial records (such as payment method data)
  • Address and phone numbers 

  Businesses were barred from collecting this information without explicit consent (and even with it in some cases). If collected, such sensitive information is also subject to strict requirements on how it should be stored, secured, transferred and used. 

  7 Main GDPR Principles Explained 

  Article 5 of the GDPR lays out seven main GDPR principles for personal data and privacy protection : 

  • Lawfulness, fairness and transparency — data must be obtained legally, collected with consent and in adherence to laws. 
  • Purpose limitation — all personal information must be collected for specified, explicit and legal purposes. 
  • Data minimisation — companies must collect only necessary and adequate data, aligned with the stated purpose. 
  • Accuracy — data accuracy must be ensured at all times. Companies must have mechanisms to erase or correct inaccurate data without delays. 
  • Storage limitation — data must be stored only for as long as the stated purpose suggests. Though there’s no upper time limit on data storage. 
  • Integrity and confidentiality (security) — companies must take measures to ensure secure data storage and prevent unlawful or unauthorised access to it. 
  • Accountability — companies must be able to demonstrate adherence to the above principles. 

  Google claimed to have taken steps to make all of their products GDPR compliant ahead of the deadline. But in practice, this wasn’t always the case.

  In March 2018, a group of publishers admonished Google for not providing them with enough tools for GDPR compliance :

  “[Y]ou refuse to provide publishers with any specific information about how you will collect, share and use the data. Placing the full burden of obtaining new consent on the publisher is untenable without providing the publisher with the specific information needed to provide sufficient transparency or to obtain the requisite specific, granular and informed consent under the GDPR.”

  The proposed Google Analytics GDPR consent form was hard to implement and lacked customisation options. In fact, Google “makes unilateral decisions” on how the collected data is stored and used. 

  Users had no way to learn about or control all intended uses of people’s data — which made compliance with the second clause impossible. 

  Unsurprisingly, Google was among the first companies to face a GDPR lawsuit (together with Facebook). 

  By 2019, French data regulator CNIL, successfully argued that Google wasn’t sufficiently disclosing its data collection across products — and hence in breach of GDPR. After a failed appeal, Google had to pay a €50 million fine and promise to do better. 

  2019 : Google Analytics 4 Announcement 

  Throughout 2019, Google rightfully attempted to resolve some of its GDPR shortcomings across all products, Google Universal Analytics (UA) included. 

  They added a more visible consent mechanism for online tracking and provided extra compliance tips for users to follow. In the background, Google also made tech changes to its data processing mechanism to get on the good side of regulations.

  Though Google addressed some of the issues, they missed others. A 2019 independent investigation found that Google real-time-bidding (RTB) ad auctions still used EU citizens’ and residents’ data without consent, thanks to a loophole called “Push Pages”. But they managed to quickly patch this up before the allegations had made it to court. 

  In November 2019, Google released a beta version of the new product version — Google Analytics 4, due to replace Universal Analytics. 

  GA4 came with a set of new privacy-focused features for ticking GDPR boxes such as :

  • Data deletion mechanism. Users can now request to surgically extract certain data from the Analytics servers via a new interface. 
  • Shorter data retention period. You can now shorten the default retention period to 2 months by default (instead of 14 months) or add a custom limit.  
  • IP Anonymisation. GA4 doesn’t log or store IP addresses by default. 

  Google Analytics also updated its data processing terms and made changes to its privacy policy. 

  Though Google made some progress, Google Analytics 4 still has many limitations — and isn’t GDPR compliant. 

  2020 : Privacy Shield Invalidation Ruling 

  As part of the 2018 GDPR preparations, Google named its Irish entity (Google Ireland Limited) as the “data controller” legally responsible for EEA and Swiss users’ information. 

  The company announcement says : 

  

  Initially, Google assumed that this legal change would help them ensure GDPR compliance as “legally speaking” a European entity was set in charge of European data. 

  Practically, however, EEA consumers’ data was still primarily transferred and processed in the US — where most Google data centres are located. Until 2020, such cross-border data transfers were considered legal thanks to the Privacy Shield framework. 

  But in July 2020, The EU Court of Justice ruled that this framework doesn’t provide adequate data protection to digitally transmitted data against US surveillance laws. Hence, companies like Google can no longer use it. The Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) reached the same conclusion in September 2020. 

  The invalidation of the Privacy Shield framework put Google in a tough position.

   Article 14. f of the GDPR explicitly states : 

  “The controller (the company) that intends to carry out a transfer of personal data to a recipient (Analytics solution) in a third country or an international organisation must provide its users with information on the place of processing and storage of its data”.

  Invalidation of the Privacy Shield framework prohibited Google from moving data to the US. At the same time, GDPR provisions mandated that they must disclose proper data location. 

  But Google Analytics (like many other products) had no a mechanism for : 

  • Guaranteeing intra-EU data storage 
  • Selecting a designated regional storage location 
  • Informing users about data storage location or data transfers outside of the EU 

  And these factors made Google Analytics in direct breach of GDPR — a territory, where they remain as of 2022.

  2020-2022 : Google GDPR Breaches and Fines 

  The 2020 ruling opened Google to GDPR lawsuits from country-specific data regulators.

  Google Analytics in particular was under a heavy cease-fire. 

  • Sweden first fined Google for violating GDPR for no not fulfilling its obligations to request data delisting in 2020. 
  • France rejected Google Analytics 4 IP address anonymisation function as a sufficient measure for protecting cross-border data transfers. Even with it, US intelligence services can still access user IPs and other PII. France declared Google Analytics illegal and pressed a €150 million fine. 
  • Austria also found Google Analytics GDPR non-compliant and proclaimed the service as “illegal”. The authority now seeks a fine too. 

  The Dutch Data Protection Authority and  Norwegian Data Protection Authority also found Google Analytics guilty of a GDPR breach and seek to limit Google Analytics usage. 

  New privacy controls in Google Analytics 4 do not resolve the underlying issue — unregulated, non-consensual EU-US data transfer. 

  Google Analytics GDPR non-compliance effectively opens any website tracking or analysing European visitors to legal persecution.

  In fact, this is already happening. noyb, a European privacy-focused NGO, has already filed over 100 lawsuits against European websites using Google Analytics.

  2022 : Privacy Shield 2.0. Negotiations

  Google isn’t the only US company affected by the Privacy Shield framework invalidation. The ruling puts thousands of digital companies at risk of non-compliance.

  To settle the matter, US and EU authorities started “peace talks” in spring 2022.

  European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that they are working with the Biden administration on the new agreement that will “enable predictable and trustworthy data flows between the EU and US, safeguarding the privacy and civil liberties.” 

  However, it’s just the beginning of a lengthy negotiation process. The matter is far from being settled and contentious issues remain as we discussed on Twitter (come say hi !).

  

  For one, the US isn’t eager to modify its surveillance laws and is mostly willing to make them “proportional” to those in place in the EU. These modifications may still not satisfy CJEU — which has the power to block the agreement vetting or invalidate it once again. 

  While these matters are getting hashed out, Google Analytics users, collecting data about EU citizens and/or residents, remain on slippery grounds. As long as they use GA4, they can be subject to GDPR-related lawsuits. 

  To Sum It Up 

  • Google Analytics 4 and Google Universal Analytics are not GDPR compliant because of Privacy Shield invalidation in 2020. 
  • French and Austrian data watchdogs named Google Analytics operations “illegal”. Swedish, Dutch and Norwegian authorities also claim it’s in breach of GDPR. 
  • Any website using GA for collecting data about European citizens and/or residents can be taken to court for GDPR violations (which is already happening). 
  • Privacy Shield 2.0 Framework discussions to regulate EU-US data transfers have only begun and may take years. Even if accepted, the new framework(s) may once again be invalidated by local data regulators as has already happened in the past. 

  Time to Get a GDPR Compliant Google Analytics Alternative 

  Retaining 100% data ownership is the optimal path to GDPR compliance.

  By selecting a transparent web analytics solution that offers 100% data ownership, you can rest assured that no “behind the scenes” data collection, processing or transfers take place. 

  Unlike Google Analytics 4, Matomo offers all of the features you need to be GDPR compliant : 

  • Full data anonymisation 
  • Single-purpose data usage 
  • Easy consent and an opt-out mechanism 
  • First-party cookies usage by default 
  • Simple access to collect data 
  • Fast data removals 
  • EU-based data storage for Matomo Cloud (or storage in the country of your choice with Matomo On-Premise)

  Learn about your audiences in a privacy-centred way and protect your business against unnecessary legal exposure. 

  Start your 21-day free trial (no credit card required) to see how fully GDPR-compliant website analytics works ! 

  21 day free trial. No credit card required.

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• Matomo Celebrates 15 Years of Building an Open-Source & Transparent Web Analytics Solution

  30 juin 2022, par Matthieu Aubry — About, Community
  &lt;script type=&quot;text/javascript&quot;&gt;<br />
       if ('function' === typeof window.playMatomoVideo){<br />
       window.playMatomoVideo(&quot;brand&quot;, &quot;#brand&quot;)<br />
       } else {<br />
       document.addEventListener(&quot;DOMContentLoaded&quot;, function() { window.playMatomoVideo(&quot;brand&quot;, &quot;#brand&quot;); });<br />
       }<br />
  &lt;/script&gt;

  Fifteen years ago, I realised that people (myself included) were increasingly integrating the internet into their everyday lives, and it was clear that it would only expand in the future. It was an exciting new world, but the amount of personal data shared online, level of tracking and lack of security was a growing concern. Google Analytics was just launched then and was already gaining huge traction – so data from millions of websites started flowing into Google’s database, creating what was then the biggest centralised database about people worldwide and their actions online.

  So as a young engineering student, I decided we needed to build an open source and transparent solution that could help make the internet more secure and private while still providing organisations with powerful insights. I aimed to create a win-win solution for businesses and their digital consumers.

  And in 2007, I started developing Matomo with the help from Scott Switzer and Jennifer Langdon (who offered me an internship and support).   

  All thanks to the Matomo Community

  We have reached significant milestones and made major changes over the last 15 years, but we wouldn’t be where we are today without the Matomo Community.

  So I would like to celebrate and thank the hundreds of volunteer developers who have donated their time to develop Matomo, the thousands of contributors who provided feedback to improve Matomo, the countless supportive forum members, our passionate team of 40 at Matomo, the numerous translators who have translated Matomo and the 1.5 million websites that choose Matomo as their analytics platform.

  

  Matomo has been a community effort built on the shoulders of many, and we will continue to work for you. 

  So let’s look at some milestones we have achieved over the last 15 years.

  Looking back on milestones in our timeline

  2007

  • Birth of Matomo
  • First alpha version released

  2008

  • Release first public 0.1.0 version

  2009

  • 50,000 websites use Matomo

  2010

  • Matomo first stable 1.0.0 released
  • Mobile app launched

  2011

  • Released Ecommerce Analytics, Custom Variables, First Party Cookies

  • Released Privacy control features (first of many privacy features to come !)

  2012

  • Released Log Analytics feature
  • 1 Million Downloads !
  • 300,000 websites worldwide use Matomo

  2013

  • Matomo is now available in 50 languages !
  • Matomo brand redesign

  2016

  • Released Roll-Up Reporting Premium Feature, Users Flow Premium Feature, White Label Premium Feature, A/B Testing Premium Feature, Media Analytics Premium Feature, Funnels Premium Feature and Activity Log Premium Feature 
  • On-Premise Premium Plugins now available on the Marketplace

  2017

  • Launched Matomo Cloud service 
  • Released Multi Channel Conversion Attribution Premium Feature, Custom Reports Premium Feature, Login Saml Premium Feature, WooCommerceAnalytics Premium Feature and Heatmap & Session Recording Premium Feature 

  2018

  • Piwik renamed to Matomo
  • New Matomo logo and Matomo.org website re-launch
  • Launch of Matomo Tag Manager
  • 10,000 stars on Github
  • GDPR comes into effect, and Matomo released new product features and published several new guides
  • 17 Matomo features videos published online
  • Reached thousands of paying customers, making the project sustainable and financially independent

  2019

  • 700,000 websites worldwide use Matomo
  • Google Analytics importer released

  2020

  • Matomo For WordPress goes live on the WP Marketplace !
  • Released Paid Advertising Performance Premium feature
  • 100 million On-Premise Plugins downloads on the marketplace (since the beginning)

  2021

  • 1,000,000 websites worldwide use Matomo
  • including 30,000 active Matomo for WordPress installations
  • Released SEO Web Vitals, Advertising Conversion Export and Tracking Spam Prevention feature

  2022

  • Released WP Statistics to Matomo importer

  Our efforts continue

  While we’ve seen incredible growth over the years, our work doesn’t stop there. In fact, we’re only just getting started.

  Today over 55% of the internet continues to use privacy-threatening web analytics solutions, while 1.5% uses Matomo. So there are still great strides to be made to create a more private internet, and joining the Matomo Community is one way to support this movement.

  There are many ways to get involved too, such as :

  • Submitting feature requests
  • Developing for Matomo 
  • Leaving Matomo a review on sites like Capterra, TrustRadius, G2 Crowd, alternativeTo, SaaSworthy, Siftery, Open Hub
  • Translating Matomo
  • Joining our Security Bug Bounty Programme
  • Sharing Matomo with your peers
  • Talking about Matomo on social platforms

  So what comes next for Matomo ?

  The future of Matomo is approachable, powerful and flexible. We’re strengthening the customers’ voice, expanding our resources internally (we’re continuously hiring !) and conducting rigorous customer research to craft a tool that balances usability and functionality.

  I look forward to the next 15 years and seeing what the future holds for Matomo and our community.

• Using FFMPEG with PHP via shell_exec

  23 février 2018, par Peter Friedlander

  Trying to scan a directory fill of MPEG files and make framegrabs out of them using PHP.

  $e= shell_exec('find  . -regex ".*\.\(mp4\)"    -exec bash -c \'/home3/tcokchal/public_html/ffmpeg3/ffmpeg-git-20180222-64bit-static/ffmpeg -i {} -vf fps=1/8 \{}Frame55Grab%d.png\'  - {} \; 2>&1 ' );

  This only returns Error while opening encoder for output stream #0:0 - maybe incorrect parameters such as bit_rate, rate, width or height

  Im trying to automate the process of a local shell script

  find . -regex ".*\.\(mp4\)"  -exec ffmpeg -i {} -vf fps=1/8 {}Frame55Grab%d.png  \;

  Which works

  Output

  ffmpeg version N-45152-ga246701e9-static https://johnvansickle.com/ffmpeg/  Copyright (c) 2000-2018 the FFmpeg developers
  
    built with gcc 6.3.0 (Debian 6.3.0-18) 20170516
  
    configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-static --disable-debug --disable-ffplay --disable-indev=sndio --disable-outdev=sndio --cc=gcc-6 --enable-fontconfig --enable-frei0r --enable-gnutls --enable-gray --enable-libfribidi --enable-libass --enable-libfreetype --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-librubberband --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libvorbis --enable-libopus --enable-libtheora --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvpx --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxvid --enable-libzimg
  
    libavutil      56.  7.101 / 56.  7.101
  
    libavcodec     58. 12.102 / 58. 12.102
  
    libavformat    58.  9.100 / 58.  9.100
  
    libavdevice    58.  2.100 / 58.  2.100
  
    libavfilter     7. 12.100 /  7. 12.100
  
    libswscale      5.  0.101 /  5.  0.101
  
    libswresample   3.  0.101 /  3.  0.101
  
    libpostproc    55.  0.100 / 55.  0.100
  
  Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from './1576498169060935.mp4':
  
    Metadata:
  
      major_brand     : isom
  
      minor_version   : 512
  
      compatible_brands: isomiso2avc1mp41
  
      encoder         : Lavf56.40.101
  
    Duration: 00:00:29.46, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 590 kb/s
  
      Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (Main) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 360x640, 516 kb/s, 29.93 fps, 30 tbr, 90k tbn, 60 tbc (default)
  
      Metadata:
  
        handler_name    : VideoHandler
  
      Stream #0:1(und): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, mono, fltp, 64 kb/s (default)
  
      Metadata:
  
        handler_name    : SoundHandler
  
  Stream mapping:
  
    Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (h264 (native) -> png (native))
  
  Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
  
  [png @ 0x55ed2c0] ff_frame_thread_encoder_init failed
  
  Error initializing output stream 0:0 -- Error while opening encoder for output stream #0:0 - maybe incorrect parameters such as bit_rate, rate, width or height
  
  Conversion failed!
  
  
  
  Done.