We’ve written about Google’s efforts to provide compliance help to their European Google Analytics users before, this is a short update to help you finding that agreement.
Why accept the Data Processing Amendment?
The Data Processing Amendment is a concession by Google to European data protection authorities, first of all to the ones in Germany (see how to use Google Analytics in Germany).
Many of Europe’s data protection authorities believe that in order to run a privacy regulation compliant Google Analytics installation you have to sign a data processing agreement that is in line with European rules.
The Article 29 Working Party has recommended Google change their process to match the one designed for German users:
For analytics purposes, Google should also extend to all European users the process
designed in Germany (enhanced information of the data subjects by the website, limited use of the data to the purpose of analytics and IP anonymisation).
Where is the Data Processing Amendment?
Google has added a short paragraph regarding the Data Processing Amendment in their Analytics privacy and security documentation:
The Google Analytics Data Processing Amendment is meant for businesses established in the territory of a member state of the European Economic Area or Switzerland, or that, for other reasons, are subject to the territorial scope of the national implementations of Directive 95/46/EC.
You can find and accept the amendment in your Analytics account settings:
- Sign into your account
- Browse to “Admin” in the navigation bar
- Click on “Account Settings”
- Find Data Processing Amendment
- Ultimately accept it
This is the text you’ll be looking for:
If you have a business established in the territory of a member state of the European Economic Area or Switzerland, or if you are subject to the territorial scope of the national implementations of Directive 95/46/EC, you are eligible to accept the terms of this Data Processing Amendment to the Google Analytics Terms of Service. Learn more.
The Data Processing Amendment for this account has not been accepted.
Data Processing Amendment in my language?
What does that Data Processing Amendment translate to in your language? Since we run privacy policies in English/German/Italian/Spanish/French here are their translated counterparts:
- German: Zusatz zur Datenverarbeitung
- French: Modification du traitement des données
- Spanish: Enmienda para el procesamiento de datos
- Italian: Emendamento sull’elaborazione dei dati
Right now (20/11/2013) the actual Amendment text is only available in English.
Update: Google has recently introduced some significant changes in relation to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). You can read all about the changes and how they will affect you here.
