Google Analytics, the Data Protection Authority and the GDPR’s holes

The Italian data protection authority recently ruled on an Italian company’s unlawful Google Analytics use.  The ruling exposes the ‘holes’ of the GDPR, the attempt to plug them at all costs, and the inability (or lack of will) to fully pursue the political choice to protect Europe’s digital sovereignty by Andrea Monti – Initially published in Italian on Strategikon – an Italian Tech blog. Continue reading “Google Analytics, the Data Protection Authority and the GDPR’s holes”

Is Google Analytics Illegal?

For some time now, a ‘rumour’ has been circulating in Italy, according which using Google Analytics is ‘illegal’. In the silence of the judiciary – the only one entitled to definitively establish such a fact – and of the Data Protection Authority, more or less organised initiatives are multiplying, ‘warning’ public administrations not to use Big G’s platform. Many ‘DPOs’ – data protection officers – to err on the side of precaution, advise their clients to get rid of the inconvenient tool. In reality, however, things are not as simple as that, so these FAQs may be helpful for a better understanding of the matter by Andrea Monti – Initially published in Italian on Strategikon – an Italian Tech Blog

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Japan enters the Analytics War. Is this the end of EU legal imperialism?

The echoes of the first shots fired against Google Analytics by the Austrian Data Protection Authority have not yet died down in the Analytics War, that another attack came from the French front. On 10 February, the Cnil declared that it shared the reading of the Gdpr according to which the use of Google’s data aggregation system allows an illegal transfer of data to the US. The reactions of the American forces were not long in coming, with Meta’s adamantine declaration in a report filed with the SEC, according to which it might be complicated to continue operating in Europe on account of data protection legislation. Google and the other Big Tech companies have not reacted just yet. However, it is probably only a matter of time before a “coalition of the willing” is born to defend the industrial interests of a sector that is strategic for the US, also in terms of international politics by Andrea Monti – published initially in Italian on Strategikon – an Italian Tech blog

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Meta, intelligence and private data. Is it the birth of Technoneomedievalism?

The international order based on the Peace of Westphalia continues to yield to the pressures of a resurgent polycentricity of international powers described by the idea of Neo-Medievalism. However, the ubiquitous role of information technologies makes us wonder whether even this notion is not now obsolete and does not require to match the new interaction between public and private subjects. The East has already chosen. The opinion of Andrea Monti – Professor of Digital Law in the Degree Course in Digital Marketing – University of Chieti-Pescara – Initially published in Italian by Formiche.net Continue reading “Meta, intelligence and private data. Is it the birth of Technoneomedievalism?”

Meta’s threat is the result of European hypocrisy and cultural subordination to North American models

Like a sovereign state, Meta-Facebook is announcing possible “sanctions” against another (non-)sovereign state, the European Union, because of its policy choices on personal data protection. After decades of guilty inertia, some national data protection authorities (the Austrian and German ones, in particular) have woken up from their torpor and discovered that Google’s ecosystem creates some problems for the rights of citizens of EU Member States. Better late than never? Comments on the news superficially focused on the tired narrative of ‘privacy protection’ and the risk that US authorities might access data imported by Google. However, these analyses fail to grasp some structural aspects of the affair.  by Andrea Monti – Initially published in Italian on Strategikon – an Italian Tech blog. Continue reading “Meta’s threat is the result of European hypocrisy and cultural subordination to North American models”