Laws protecting user privacy such as the European Economic Area’s General Data Protection Regulation and other privacy laws that establish various rights for applicable US-state residents impact content publishers, application developers, website visitors, and application users. See also the Google privacy policy and Google’s site for customers and partners. Currently such regulations apply to specific geographic regions, but publishers and application developers often implement controls that affect the experience of users in all regions.
Google is committed to protecting data confidentiality and security. It is important to understand your privacy options, whether in the role of a publisher or a consumer. This page provides information on data collection and security for:
- Content publishers and app developers (“customers”) using Google measurement products.
- Website visitors and app users (“users”) of sites and apps using Google measurement products.
Data collection
Google customers use tags on web pages and an SDK for mobile apps to enable Google measurement products. The measurement data collected helps customers understand their users’ needs and, optionally, personalize the user experience and offer relevant advertising (see Advertising personalization).
Google tags and the SDK use cookies and app instance IDs, respectively, to measure user interaction. While these identifiers provide information about user behavior, Google prohibits customers from sending Personally Identifiable Information to Google Analytics. Even so, use of cookies and app IDs falls under the privacy laws mentioned previously. Google customers need to inform users about the information being stored and give them the opportunity to grant or deny their consent.
See the following sections on this page to:
- Learn how Google collects and processes information about website and app usage: Information for sites and apps using Google Analytics.
- Learn about our user policies and controls: Information for visitors of sites and apps using Google Analytics.
Information for visitors of sites and apps Using Google Analytics
Our privacy policyAt Google, we are keenly aware of the trust you place in us and our responsibility to keep your privacy and data secure. As part of this responsibility, we let you know what information we collect when you use our products and services, why we collect it, and how we use it to improve your experience. The Google privacy policy & principles describes how we treat personal information when you use Google's products and services, including Google Analytics.
Google Analytics mainly uses first-party cookies to report on visitor (aka. user) interactions on Google Analytics customers’ websites. Users may disable cookies or delete any individual cookie. Learn more about How Google uses cookies
In addition, Google Analytics supports an optional browser add-on that - once installed and enabled - disables measurement by Google Analytics for any site a user visits. Note that this add-on only disables Google Analytics measurement.
Where a site or app uses Google Analytics for Apps or the Google Analytics for Firebase SDKs, Google Analytics collects an app-instance identifier — a randomly generated number that identifies a unique installation of an App. Whenever a user resets their Advertising Identifier (Advertising ID on Android, and ID for Advertisers on iOS), the app-instance identifier is also reset.
Where sites or apps have implemented Google Analytics with other Google Advertising products, like Google Ads, additional advertising identifiers may be collected. Users can opt-out of this feature and manage their settings for this cookie using the Ads Settings. Learn more about Purposes of cookies
Information for sites and apps using Google Analytics
Google Analytics under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)Google operates as a data processor for Google Analytics. This is reflected in our Ads Data Processing Terms, which are available to all Google Analytics customers with direct contracts with Google. Learn more about Data Processing Terms
Google Analytics is a data processor under GDPR because Google Analytics collects and processes data on behalf of our clients, pursuant to their instructions. Our customers are data controllers who retain full rights over the collection, access, retention, and deletion of their data at any time. Google’s use of data is controlled by the terms of its contract with Google Analytics customers and any settings enabled by customers through the user interface of our product.
In order to help Google Analytics customers prepare for laws that establish various rights for applicable US-state residents, we have updated our Data Processing Terms to include a