You probably know by now that GDPR (The General Data Protection Act) goes live May 25th, 2018. If you operate online from the EU, you have one month left to get prepared for GDRP compliance. Read full post - goo.gl/9umcvu Join our Free Google Analytics Mini-Course - goo.gl/gg5J1Z And for those of us who don't operate in the EU, it's still important to understand how this regulation changes the way we use online tracking. In today's video and post, we'll talk about at the impact of GDPR on your Google Analytics data. We'll break down Google's recent email about preparing your analytics account for GDRP compliance. And we'll look at the new tools Google has added into our analytics accounts to help us with this process. Disclaimer Before we get into the details, I want to offer a disclaimer. I don't have all the answers about how GDPR will affect your use of Google Analytics. But the stakes are high. So, I would recommend contacting legal counsel for GDPR information that's specific your business needs. That said, I will do my best to interpret Google's latest communications. Google's recent email to account admins about GDPR Google recently sent out an email to all their analytics admins about GDPR. The purpose of this email was to introduce product updates that will help us get ready for data privacy compliance. Google Analytics update - Data retention control One of the product updates Google is introducing is data retention control. This feature will allow you to manage how long your user data is stored on Google's servers. Data retention control will go into effect in your account the same day GDPR launches, May 25th. However, you can adjust your data retention settings now. The setting you select will then activate on May 25th, 2018. Data Retention control settings The current default for data retention is 26 months. But you can select to retain your user data for a shorter or longer period. At this point, I can't say if one length of time is better than another for GDPR compliance. Hopefully, we'll be able to do some research on this setting and provide an update in a later post. One detail that's important to note: Google's states that your data retention setting won't affect reports based on aggregate data. Your retention setting is specific to user-related data. User deletion tool Goole has also introduced a user deletion tool. This tool will allow you to remove users' Client IDs, User IDs, or App Instance IDs from your analytics data.  When a user opts out of tracking, you'll use this tool to remove their data. We've talked about merging Client IDs, and User IDs for cross device tracking in one of our past tutorials. We've also discussed synchronizing Client IDs for cross domain tracking. The user deletion will help you undo this type of tracking. Google's done a lot of the work for you Google's also used their recent email to remind us of all the pre-existing tracking control tools we have available. Things like: customizable cookie settings data sharing settings privacy controls data deletion on account termination IP anonymization Not everyone needs to use these tools, but they are available to help you with GDPR compliance. You are opted into the changes in Google Analytics The next part of Google's email lets you know that you have opted into their data processing changes. Essentially, Google's making you aware they've made compliance related changes. If you want to use their tools, your account is subject to those changes.

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