Jusletter IT

In a decision dated December 22, 2021, the Austrian data protection authority dsb declared the use of the analysis and tracking tool Google Analytics by an Austrian company to be unlawful. This followed the Schrems II ruling of the European Court of Justice (ECJ). This decision, and a similar decision issued shortly afterwards by the French data protection authority CNIL, have been causing uncertainty ever since. This text looks at the reasons for the decisions of the two authorities and sets out the risks associated with the use of Google Analytics. Finally, it outlines alternatives to Google Analytics and formulates some rules that can be used to reduce the risks of using Google Analytics.