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Google Analytics May Be Illegal In Germany
sopssa sends in a TechCrunch story that begins "Several federal and regional government officials in Germany are trying to put a ban on Google Analytics, the search giant's free software product that allows website owners and publishers to get detailed statistics about the number, whereabouts, and search behavior of their visitors (and much more)." Here's Google's translation of the article from Zeit Online (original in German). A German lawyer cited there says that penalties for websites that uses Google Analytics could amount to €50,000 (about $75,000). Reader sopssa adds, "The amount of data Google collects from everywhere on the Internet is indeed huge, and website owners should be using a local open source alternative to keep visitor data private."
No. What people end up accepting in the States is their business, but the EU has a number of data protection principles (see section 2.2). Veiled third party advertising bugs don't follow those principles.
I don't understand people saying that Google knows too much about each of us. Maybe I haven't been paying close enough attention as of late, but has Google ever done wrong by their users? And besides, as an entirely uninteresting person, I don't really care if Google knows my surfing habits. I hear the same argument against the club cards at supermarkets, and the same response applies. I don't care if the supermarket "Man" knows that I buy excessive amounts of phallic vegetables and personal lubricant (unrelated).
Well, it makes. For the website author who just wants to have the goddamned statistics presented in a convinient, easy-to-digest format to be able to focus on actual improvements to the website, and not on wrestling with half-arsed local statistics generators that use access logs, 1px images, session cookies and somesuch.
As a website admin, I'd gladly switch to a solution that does not raise such concerns as GA, but there is none of comparable quality and I'm not in position to make my own with an appropriate feature set. Piwik is somewhat close, but it doesn't support PostgreSQL, which is a show-stopper for me - installing a second RDBMS just for a single auxiliary application is out of question. Besides, it's still probably going to be blocked by NoScript and the likes.
So, what other options do I have?
This is Slashdot. Common sense is futile. You will be modded down.
The "Open Source alternative" is Piwik
Piwik is sponsored by OpenX
OpenX is an ad serving company that competes with Adsense
Jon Miller is on the board of OpenX
Jon Miller is CEO of Digital Media at News Corp.
I didn't mean to create a conspiracy out of this, but it's amusing to see how any move against Google is now a move in favor of Rupert Murdoch.
And I want a clear view into the bathroom of that hot chick across the street.
Have you considered that your need for clean statistics does not outweight the peoples right for privacy?
Imagine someone steals your car because he couldn't get to work otherwise. Should it be your problem that he can't get to work?
Should it be my problem that you can't improve your website? When you invade my privacy as means to do so it is my problem.
I'm actually an American on vacation in Frankfurt at this very moment, and it is, indeed, a much more regulated environment. Seeing three guys walking through the aiport, one of them holding an automatic weapon at the ready, and getting the feeling that they're just waiting for a reason to jump you is very sobering. As far as everything being against the law, after talking candidly with some of my friends that live in Germany that is a far less humorous statement than it should be.