By Ankita Tripathy
What data does google analytics prohibit collecting? If this is something that you have been searching for then you have reached the right place.
| Question: What Data Does Google Analytics Prohibit Collecting? Options: ➊ Billing city ➋ Personally Identifiable Information ➌ Product SKU(s) ➍ Purchase amount Answer: Personally Identifiable Information |
If your answer was Personally Identifiable Information, then you are absolutely correct. But you might want to go through this blog that aims to explain why it is so.
Considering the fact that Google Analytics collects data from almost all sources, it can come as a news to many that the platform does not collect the PII. So, keep reading this article till the end…
What Is Personally Identifiable Information?
Before explaining the answer to what data does google analytics prohibit collecting, it is important that you know the meaning of Personally Identifiable Information.
So what is it?
The PII or the Personally Identifiable Information is the information that is used to identify an individual personally. It is thus used to confirm the identity of an individual. This Personally Identifiable Information contains several things like the Social Security Number, the financial information, the medical records, driver’s license, and many other things.
Now that you know what it is, it is time to understand why Google Analytics does not collect data from PII. Scroll down to learn more…
Explanation To The Question, “What Data Does Google Analytics Prohibit Collecting?”
Now that you know what PII or Personally Identifiable Information is, it is important to know why Google Analytics prohibits collecting data from this.
The term of the services of Google Analytics prohibits anyone from sending the PII or Personally Identifiable Information.
All the users and customers of Google must adhere to these terms. And considering the fact that PII contains all the sensitive information related to the person, it is against the policies of the search engine or the tool to collect data from the PII.
According to the Department of Labor (DOL) of the United States,
“The loss of PII can result in substantial harm to individuals, including identity theft or other fraudulent use of the information.”
This means that if the PII gets leaked, it can cause substantial harm to the individual. This harm can be made financially as well as physically.
Google Analytics Privacy Policy And Terms Of Service
According to the terms of Google Analytics in the Privacy section, there is a strict prohibition on the collection of data from Personally Identifiable Information. In addition, it states that the users cannot
“also assisting or permitting any third party and, pass the information to Google that Google could use and also recognizing as the personally identifiable information.”
Furthermore, the platform also states that you should “use commercially reasonable efforts to ensure that a User is provided with clear and comprehensive information about, and consents to, the storing and then access any of cookies or other information about the user’s device where such kind of activity occurs due to the loose connection along with the Service and which is providing by such kind of information also obtaining such type of consent if it required by law.”
Frequently Asked Questions!!! (FAQs):
Here are some of the questions that readers mostly ask regarding google analytics. You might want to take a look at them to get clearer with the concept of what data does google analytics prohibit collecting.
Ans: In case you notice that your CPC data is not being collected in Google Analytics, there can be a lot of reasons for that to happen. Here are some of the causes for CPC data not being collected:
➊ Landing pages are untagged.
➋ Google analytics account might not be linked to the Analytics view
➌ The URL of the tagged ads that were done manually might be missing information
Ans: While there are a number of things that are considered to be PII or Personally Identifiable Information, there are a number of things that are not included in it. Here are some of the items that are not considered to be Personally Identifiable Information:
➊ Workplace
➋ Gender
➌ Religion
➍ Business phone numbers
➎ Job titles
Ans: The data brokers are the ones who deal with collecting, transforming, as well as selling the personal data or the PII of users. Therefore, they are also known as Information Brokers. They can get the PII from various resources like documents, government records, criminal records, registration information, etc.
Wrapping It Up!
There are a number of ways in which the Google Analytics tool helps users in tracking the performance of the website. There are several sources from which the platform collects data in order to provide users with coherent and accurate results and reports.
However, if there is one thing that the terms of service prohibit the platform from doing, it is to collect data from Personally Identifiable Information or PII.
In case you were searching for the answer to what data does google analytics prohibit collecting, I hope that this blog has provided you with enough information regarding the same. Comment below all the problems that you have related to the same, and I will make sure to answer you all.
