Privacy NGO noyb filed five complaints against Polish websites, complaining that the use of Google Analytics is not GDPR compliant.
The complaints have not been decided yet. However, four European data protection authorities already ruled against the use of Google Analytics in similar complaints by noyb and another (the Danish Datatilsynet) practically banned Google Analytics from Denmark in a press release. These authorities follow a coordinated approach, so other EEA and EU countries such as Poland may follow.
- Should I worry about the GDPR in Poland?
- What is the Polish privacy legislation?
- What is all the GDPR fuss about?
- Final Thoughts
Let’s dive in!
Should I worry about the GDPR in Poland?
Poland is a Member State of the European Union, so the GDPR applies to all data processing activities from Polish companies.
The GDPR also applies to any service targeting the Polish market. Additionally, if your website’s target audience includes Poland and you use Google Analytics, it also applies to you.
But there’s a catch- it only applies if you process personal data. Privacy-friendly analytics tools such as Simple Analytics allow you to get valuable insights without processing any personal data. This way, you comply with the GDPR because it doesn’t apply to the data you process in the first place.
What is the Polish privacy legislation?
The main data protection framework is the GDPR of the European Union. This legislation is enforced by Polish courts and by the Polish data protection authority, the AP. Poland is also subject to Articles 7 and 8 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which protect privacy and grant a right to data protection. However, Poland is in a peculiar position among EU Member States because it is covered by Protocol 30 of the Treaty of Maastricht.
Furthermore, Poland is a Member State of the Council of Europe. As such, Poland ratified the European Convention on Human rights, which protects private life and correspondence. Poland also ratified Convention 108 of the Council of Europe, which is the only binding international agreement on data protection.
What is all the GDPR fuss about?
The recent trend of decisions against Google Analytics is part of a larger legal puzzle about data transfers between the EEA and the US. So this is much bigger than individual countries such as Poland, and it’s bigger than Google Analytics too. We wrote about this extensively already on our blog, so here’s a short version.
The core issue is State surveillance. Under the GDPR, European personal data can only be transferred outside the EEA when done safely. This is difficult for US data transfers because the US legal framework allows extensive and invasive surveillance over the data of foreign citizens, including Polish citizens.
Two data transfer frameworks (Safe Harbor and Privacy Shield) between the EU and the US made GDPR-compliant data transfers possible in the past, but both frameworks were invalidated by the EU Court of Justice in the Schrems I and II cases. A third framework is on the way but will certainly face a legal challenge. With a Schrems III ruling already on the horizon, the future of EU-US data flows remains uncertain.
In the meantime, Polish companies and European companies, in general, must resort to different legal tools (typically standard contractual clauses) to lawfully transfer data to the US under the GDPR. However, the issue with these tools is that they offer no protection against State surveillance. For this reason, the Court of Justice clarified in the Schrems II case that they must be supplemented by additional privacy-safeguarding measures whenever data is sent to “unsafe” countries. This is difficult and entirely impossible for the transfers required by certain cloud-based services such as Google Analytics (we wrote about this here).
After the Schrems II ruling in 2020, most companies kept doing business as usual with US-based service providers. In the meantime, NGO noyb filed 101 complaints about data transfers against European websites using Google Analytics and Facebook Connect to nudge authorities toward stricter enforcement of the Schrems II ruling.
Data protection authorities coordinated their approach at a European level to handle the complaints coherently. As a result, the Austrian, French, Italian, and Hungarian DPAs ruled against the use of Google Analytics in very similar decisions, and the Danish DPA essentially did the same in a press release. While the decisions address an individual controller, they all set a precedent that practically amounts to a State-wide ban, as we explained here. Should the AP do the same, its decision would set a similar precedent for Poland.
With coordination at a European level and the influential French and Italian authorities leading the way, other DPAs will likely follow the example and adopt a harder stance on Google Analytics.
Final Thoughts
Fortunately, there are alternatives to Google Analytics that don’t collect personal data and are 100% GDPR compliant. Simple Analytics is one of these. We believe you don’t need to use cookies or collect personal data to show insights into your website performance.
Gathering actionable insights and identifying opportunities from website analytics is possible without tracking individual website visitors. Want to see what that looks like? Check out our live dashboard here.
We believe in making the internet a safer place that is friendly to website visitors. If this resonates with you, feel free to give us a try.