What is GA4?
Do you use Google Analytics (GA or UA universal analytics) to provide useful information on visitors to your website and their behaviours? Do you have a GA account and is it linked to your website? As a business owner, you will have recently received an email from Google detailing some important information about the new GA4.  The main takeaway is that from 1st July 2023, you will no longer receive any data about your website if you haven’t changed over to GA4.-  this is vitally important if you are offering online sales as how will you monitor them?

So what does GA4 have to do with GDPR?
You probably have received emails and heard a little about GA4 but how does it impact you and your business? There is a huge GDPR element to the new GA4 in relation to the following:

 Data collection and processing in Google Analytics 4
 IP addresses anonymization feature
 Data retention in Google Analytics 4
 Data anonymization in Google Analytics 4
 Data sharing in Google Analytics 4
 Data processing mechanism in Google Analytics 4
 Data privacy controls in Google Analytics 4
 Data deletion mechanism in Google Analytics 4

As you can see GA4 has a lot of new features. It is absolutely not “just an upgrade” and is a completely new measurement and analytics tool. Most of the features above cove extra privacy features to ensure GDPR compliance.

How easy is it to switch over?
If you are unsure how to implement GA4 on your website, please get in touch as I will be working with David Browne from The WP Guy to debunk of the confusion about this transition and explain why you should be looking at this area now and run GA4 alongside UA so you can compare and contrast the differences in the data you collect until July 1st.

A GDPR Friendly Approach

While GA4 and Universal Analytics are both full of wonderful technological features and you might want to outsource the adding of it to your website if you aren’t ‘techy’, it is your responsibility as a business owner to ensure you remain GDPR compliant during the transition period. . You need to be carrying out a DPIA (Data Protection Impact Assessment) to cover this transition process. If you aren’t sure if this applies to your business or need assistance carrying out a DPIA please get in contact and we can have a quick zoom.