Client-side analytics. Problem No: 222
It appears that the old chestnut of “privacy” and “data protection” might put a bloody great hole in the “Client-side analytics” ship. Specifically our old friend Google Analytics has been declared illegal in Germany.
“So what”, I here you cry, “we’re not in Germany”. But we are, sort of, in the Federated European States of Brussels so how long before the privacy boys start raising the issue elsewhere in Europe. The problem stems from Google acquiring unregulated information from the German people and shipping that data to the US for analysis and use is some ill-defined and opaque manner.
I hope to see the end of Google’s information monopoly in the next few years and, besides, most forward-thinking organisations already realise the importance of owning their own information and shy away from service-led offerings such as GA.
A good place to find out a bit more about Google’s less-than-transparent approach to the web is GoogleWatch.
Remember. “We are moving to a Google that knows more about you.” - Google CEO Eric Schmidt, speaking to financial analysts, February 9, 2005, as quoted in the New York Times the next day.
Thanks to GoogleWatch for the use of the logo above, which is a comedy item and not to be taken seriously.
And here comes the opt-out system from Google, due in a few weeks (http://analytics.blogspot.com/2010/03/more-choice-for-users-browser-based-opt.html) will be interesting to see if it makes any difference; it will certainly mean that Google stats will become less accurate than they are now.