An independent French IT body has recently released a statement, denouncing Google Analytics as infringing on individual user privacy and siphoning data from French citizens.
Google’s been in the midst of an endless number of investigations and court cases, with many individuals, groups, and governments criticizing the tech giant for a number of perceived (and confirmed) deficiencies in terms of online user safety. In fact, parent company Alphabet has been accused of actively siphoning and stealing user data in the interests of selling it to third party advertisers or for the company’s own interests; neither of which occur with any sort of user consent provided explicitly or otherwise. Of course, Google’s also in a position where it can afford to get away with such behavior, seeing as how the company’s flagship products are Google Search and Google Chrome, the most actively used search engine and online browser respectively. Oh, so the company decided to integrate its own alternative to third-party cookies, ensuring that user data is collected and singularly directed to itself? What’s a user going to do, quit using Search? It’s not impossible to stop using Google products, but it definitely is creating inconveniences for oneself.
France is the next country to join the legion of accusations and complaints being hurled at the tech giant, with its concerns also bordering around user data privacy and safety. Specifically, the concerns are raised not by a governmental body itself, but an independent, public-sponsored administrative body by the name of the National Commission on Informatics and Liberty (Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés in French). The CNIL states that Google Analytics is a product that actively siphons user data, and free handedly provides it to US intelligence agencies.
Analytics is a service that tracks online internet traffic, and according to Google does so while also maintaining complete user anonymity. In other words, even as users are visiting websites, their identities and other relevant information is not being revealed. Of course, that’s what Google claims, and even now the company has refused to comment on the CNIL’s statements regarding Analytics.
Read next: Introduction of New Bill Instructs the Platforms to Implement Ways to Decrease Spread of Harmful Content by Improving Algorithms
Google’s been in the midst of an endless number of investigations and court cases, with many individuals, groups, and governments criticizing the tech giant for a number of perceived (and confirmed) deficiencies in terms of online user safety. In fact, parent company Alphabet has been accused of actively siphoning and stealing user data in the interests of selling it to third party advertisers or for the company’s own interests; neither of which occur with any sort of user consent provided explicitly or otherwise. Of course, Google’s also in a position where it can afford to get away with such behavior, seeing as how the company’s flagship products are Google Search and Google Chrome, the most actively used search engine and online browser respectively. Oh, so the company decided to integrate its own alternative to third-party cookies, ensuring that user data is collected and singularly directed to itself? What’s a user going to do, quit using Search? It’s not impossible to stop using Google products, but it definitely is creating inconveniences for oneself.
France is the next country to join the legion of accusations and complaints being hurled at the tech giant, with its concerns also bordering around user data privacy and safety. Specifically, the concerns are raised not by a governmental body itself, but an independent, public-sponsored administrative body by the name of the National Commission on Informatics and Liberty (Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés in French). The CNIL states that Google Analytics is a product that actively siphons user data, and free handedly provides it to US intelligence agencies.
Analytics is a service that tracks online internet traffic, and according to Google does so while also maintaining complete user anonymity. In other words, even as users are visiting websites, their identities and other relevant information is not being revealed. Of course, that’s what Google claims, and even now the company has refused to comment on the CNIL’s statements regarding Analytics.
Read next: Introduction of New Bill Instructs the Platforms to Implement Ways to Decrease Spread of Harmful Content by Improving Algorithms