Google Analytics Banned in Germany?
We've been speaking with our German friends recently about the never ending cookie debate and the proposed ban on cookie's being dropped by websites when they are not disclosing this to users, as it is an invasion of users privacy.
This cookie debate has been around for a while and cookies were banned for affiliates out in the States earlier in the year (in one US state anyway.) However, recent reports say that in Germany they are proposing a fine of up to 50,000 euro's for website owners who drop cookies and do not disclose this to users.
What does this mean? We'll the majority of sites out there are using Google Analytics to track activity in on websites, but Google does not disclose this as part of it's Google Analytics service. So this would mean that every site in Germany with Google Analytics could be facing this fine. Whilst talking to our German friends they have not heard of any fines being proposed as yet, the legislation is still a 'grey area' apparently.
The response we have had from Google on this matter...
I spoke to my colleague on the German agency team on this as to what we
can and cannot comment on and I'm afraid she hasn't heard of this 50K
fine. It's not really regarded as 'illegal', more a 'recommendation'
that the law gave recently. She stated that a lot of her agencies use
Analytics in DE.
Do German website owners need to be worried? Not as yet it seems, but this could be the first step in trying to ban the use of cookies, which could be a very real threat to the affiliate marketing industry.
We have also heard on the grape vine (that old thing!) That Google are looking into this matter. We know that the Search Engine giant does wield great power in the industry and would not be happy with having Google Analytics banned in Germany and possibly other territories in the future.
So what are Google doing about it? We cannot confirm, but we have heard that Google will be asked to 'police' the internet in future in order for them to have the abilities to drop cookies and collecting people's data (as they have more data on people than anyone else, as far as we can tell.) The other alternative Google has come up with is that they are currently building their own version of the internet...a scary thought indeed!
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