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• CJEU rules US cloud servers don’t comply with GDPR and what this means for web analytics

  17 juillet 2020, par Jake Thornton
  Breaking news : On July 16, 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled that any cloud services hosted in the US are incapable of complying with the GDPR and EU privacy laws.

  In August 2016, the EU-US Privacy Shield framework came into effect, which “protects the fundamental rights of anyone in the EU whose personal data is transferred to the United States for commercial purposes. It allows the free transfer of data to companies that are certified in the US under the Privacy Shield.” – European Commission website

  However after today’s CJEU ruling, this Privacy Shield framework became invalidated due to significant differences between EU and US privacy laws.

  European privacy law activist Max Schrems summarises with “The Court clarified for a second time now that there is a clash between EU privacy law and US surveillance law. As the EU will not change its fundamental rights to please the NSA, the only way to overcome this clash is for the US to introduce solid privacy rights for all people – including foreigners. Surveillance reform thereby becomes crucial for the business interests of Silicon Valley.” – noyb website

  Today’s ruling also continues to spark concern into the legitimacy of US privacy laws which doesn’t fully protect people’s personal data when hosted on cloud servers based in the US.

  

  How will this affect you ?

  For any business operating a website in the EU or if you have traffic coming to your website from EU visitors, you need to know what data you’re capturing and where this data is being stored.

  Here’s what Maja Smoltczyk (Berlin’s Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information) says :

  Controllers who transfer personal data to the USA, especially when using cloud-based services, are now required to switch immediately to service providers based in the European Union or a country that can
  ensure an adequate level of data protection. The CJEU has made it refreshingly clear that data exports are not just financial decisions, as people’s fundamental rights must also be considered as a matter of priority. This ruling will put
  an end to the transfer of personal data to the USA for the sake of convenience or to cut costs.

  The controller is you (not Google) and by transferring data to the US you are at risk of being fined up to €20 million or 4% of your annual worldwide turnover for not being GDPR compliant. 

  It’s you who has to take action, not Google or other US companies. The court’s decision has immediate effect. While we assume there will be a grace period, companies should act now as finding and implementing alternatives solution can take a while. 

  Can no data be exported outside the EU anymore ?

  Data can still be exported outside the EU if an adequate level of data protection is guaranteed. This is the case for some trading partners of the EU such as New Zealand, Japan, Switzerland, and Canada. They have been certified by the EU as having a comparable level of privacy protection and therefore demonstrate adequacy at a country level.

  Necessary data can still flow to countries like the US too. This is for example the case when someone books a hotel in the US or when sending an email to someone in the US. Backups for disaster recovery and most other reasons don’t qualify as necessary.

  In all other cases you can still send data to countries like the US if you get explicit and informed consent from a user. Meaning the user has been informed about all possible risks of sending the data to the US and who can access the data (for example the US government).

  How this affects Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager users

  If your website is using Google Analytics, the safest bet is to deactivate it immediately. Otherwise, you must ask for consent from everyone who visits your website and inform them that the data will be processed in the United States under less strict privacy laws and all associated risks. If you don’t, you could be liable to privacy law infringements and face being fined for not complying with the GDPR. This also applies to Google Tag Manager as it transfers the IP address to the US which is considered personal data under the GDPR.

  Consent needs to be :

  • Freely given (the user must have a choice to not give consent and be able to opt out at any time) 
  • Informed (you need to disclose who is processing the data, what data is processed, where the data will be stored and how to opt out) 
  • Specific (consent is only valid for the specific informed purpose) 
  • Unambiguous (for example pre-ticked boxes or similar aren’t allowed)

  

  If users don’t give you consent, you are not allowed to track them using Google Analytics or any other US based cloud solution.

  Update August 19, 2020

  A month after this ruling, over 100 complaints have been filed against websites for continuing to send data to the US via Google Analytics or Facebook, by the European privacy campaign group noyb. It’s clear Google and Facebook fall under US surveillance laws such as FISA 702 and the court clearly ruled these companies cannot rely on SCCs to transfer data to the US. Anyone still using Google Analytics is now at risk of facing fines and compensation damages. 

  How this affects Matomo users

  Our cloud servers are based in Germany.

  Matomo On-Premise users choose the location of their data themselves. If the servers are located in the EU nothing changes. If the servers are located outside the EU and the website targets EU users and tracks personal data, then you need to assess whether you are required to ask for tracking consent.

  If the data is stored inside the EU you can use Matomo without asking for any consent and you can continue tracking users even if they reject a consent screen which greatly increases the quality of your data.

  Want to avoid informing users about transferring their data to the US and all associated risks ?

  Try Matomo now for free ! No credit card required.

  Download Matomo

• Spotlight : Alwaysdata.com the company behind Piwik.org web hosting [Interview]

  11 avril 2013, par matt — About, Community

  Piwik is the result of the work of many talented individuals and companies. Today we’d like to showcase Alwaysdata.com, the awesome web hosting company providing managed hosting for all Piwik.org websites and services.

  I recently met and asked a few questions to Cyril, co-founder of Alwaysdata.com and Piwik core developer. Learn more in the interview below !

  

  1. What is Alwaysdata ?
  2. Who are your customers and what kind of work do you do ?
  3. What sets Alwaysdata apart from the large web hosting competition ?
  4. Are you using Piwik internally or with customers ? If so, how are you using Piwik ?
  5. What is the next big thing for Alwaysdata ?
  6. Learn more

  What is Alwaysdata ?

  We are a French web hosting company created in 2006. If you need to host a website — a Piwik installation, for example — or even your domains/emails, we provide infrastructure and maintenance services.

  Who are your customers and what kind of work do you do ?

  We have several types of clients :

  • Individuals who need hosting for their personal site and who benefit from storage space with direct SSH access.
  • Web agencies who need hosting for their clients’ sites.
  • The largest customers, often on dedicated servers, for hosting their site/infrastructure.

  Our work falls into three categories :

  1. Support (via administration, telephone, Twitter, IRC, etc.)
  2. Development (in Python), primarily to add new features
  3. System administration, either for maintenance (e.g. adding servers), or for preparing new features

  What sets Alwaysdata apart from the large web hosting competition ?

  Two things :

  • Availability. We are a small team and often know our customers quite well. We are all on IRC, so you can contact us directly if you need any assistance.
  • Features. We are halfway between traditional web hosting and the cloud, combining the advantages of both.

  Are you using Piwik internally or with customers ? If so, how are you using Piwik ?

  All of our customers can view statistics for their sites via our global Piwik installation, without having to configure anything.

  To provide these analytics reports to our customers, we implemented import of the raw access logs in Piwik. The Log import toolkit is now a feature included in Piwik.

  What is the next big thing for Alwaysdata ?

  We are going to upgrade our pricing : instead of fixed costs, each of our clients will now pay exactly what they consume. This allows our clients the benefit of a very high quality service for the lowest possible price.

  We are also going to add native support for more technologies : Java, Node.js, ZeroMQ, etc.

  Thank you for your time and all the best to Alwaysdata for the future !

  —

  Note from Matt, Piwik founder : Cyril and the team at Alwaysdata.com have been consistently great in their system administration work for Piwik.org services, providing a fast and reliable web hosting experience with top notch support and security practises. They also handled the migration of all services from our old servers with total piece of mind.

  Alwaysdata contributed to Piwik the popular Log Analytics toolkit. They are great software developers and system administrators with a passion for their work. Since 2006, they have been maintaining optimized hosting services for the entire web infrastructure (websites, domains, emails, databases, etc.), from the simplest to the most exotic. We do recommend their managed hosting services.

  Learn more

  • Visit their website at Alwaysdata.com
  • Learn more about their Managed hosting on dedicated servers
  • Learn more about other companies and individuals who make a difference in Piwik.

• Use Google Analytics and risk fines, after CJEU ruling on Privacy Shield

  27 août 2020, par Joselyn Khor — Privacy
  EU websites using Google Analytics and Facebook are being targeted by European privacy group noyb after the invalidation of the Privacy Shield. They filed a complaint against 101 websites for continuing to send data to the US. 

  “A quick analysis of the HTML source code of major EU webpages shows that many companies still use Google Analytics or Facebook Connect one month after a major judgment by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) - despite both companies clearly falling under US surveillance laws, such as FISA 702. Neither Facebook nor Google seem to have a legal basis for the data transfers.”

  

  The Privacy Shield previously allowed for EU data to be transferred to the US. However, this was invalidated by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on July 16, 2020. The CJEU deemed it illegal for any websites to transfer the personal data of European citizens to the US. 

  They also made it clear in a press release that “data subjects can claim compensation for inadmissible data exports (marginal no. 143 of the judgment). This should in particular include non-material damage (“compensation for pain and suffering”) and must be of a deterrent amount under European law.” Which puts extra financial pressure on websites to take the new ruling seriously.

  Immediate action is required after Google Privacy Shield invalidation

  The Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information therefore calls on all those responsible under its supervision to observe the decision of the ECJ [CJEU]. Those responsible who transfer personal data to the USA - especially when using cloud services - are now required to immediately switch to service providers in the European Union or in a country with an adequate level of data protection.

  As the ruling is effective immediately, there’s a pressing need for websites using Google Analytics to act, or face getting fined.

  What does this mean for you ?

  If you’re using Google Analytics the safest bet is to stop using it immediately. 

  "Neither Google Analytics nor Facebook Connect are necessary for the operation of these websites and could therefore have been replaced or at least deactivated in the meantime."

  If you still need to use it, then you’ll need to inform your visitors via a clear consent screen. This banner needs to make clear their personal data will be sent to the US, and to educate them about any potential risk related to this. They will then need to explicitly agree to this. 

  Another downside of cookie consent screens is that you may also suffer a damaging loss of visitors. After implementing cookie consent best practices, the UK’s data regulator the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) found a 90% drop in traffic, “implying a ninety percent drop in opt-in rates.”

  With an acceptance rate for such consent screens being lower than 10% your analytics becomes guesswork rather than science. 

  Looking for a privacy-respecting alternative to Google Analytics ?

  Privacy compliant Matomo Analytics is one of the best Google Analytics alternatives availalble. 

  With Matomo you’re able to continue using analytics without facing the wrath of both the GDPR and the CJEU. Matomo On-Premise lets you choose where your data is stored, so you can ensure no data is processed in the US. 

  Matomo is privacy-friendly and can be tweaked to comply with all privacy laws. Including the GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA and PECR. The benefits of this include : not needing to use tracking or cookie consent screens (like with GA) ; and avoiding fines because no personal data is collected. You also get 100% accurate data and the ability to protect your user’s privacy.

  Download Matomo

  

  Is your EU business at risk of being fined for using Google Analytics ?

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