FAQ: Italy’s Data Watchdog “Bans” Google Analytics

Everything you need to know

What happened?

Italy’s privacy guarantor, Garante, issued a decision stating that Italian websites that use Google Analytics violate the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the EU’s data protection law.

Notably, Google falls under the US surveillance laws, which go against the GDPR’s stipulations. For example, Google would have to give up EU citizens’ data to US intelligence services if it received a formal request to do so.

Article 49 of the GDPR states:

“personal data may not be transferred to a third country unless the country provides for an adequate level of data protection or, alternatively, appropriate safeguards are put in place.”

Since Google Analytics sends data from the EU to the US for processing, the Italian court ruled that businesses must add new safeguards if they wish to continue using the Analytics tool.

This follows similar decisions in France and Austria.

The website that was involved in this case, Caffeina Media Srl., has 90 days to bring its data processing in line with the…