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“Data Protection Commissioners� in Berlin and Schleswig-Holstein regions think that Google Analytics might violate the the German ruling which was given to them in March. According to the ruling, the IP addresses of visitors on the website cannot be stored until an earlier permission is given from them. This seems very unlikely for Google because an approximate of 80% top German sites are using Google Analytics right now. You can view the complete ruling here.

Google is still fuzzy about how cookies saved in visitor’s browsers are used by their systems, which is also a possible breach of German law that protects the online surfers’ personal information. According to a German tipster:

Actually the ruling leads to the fact, that google analytics, as it provides its service right now, will never be legal in Germany. To give an example: The user must give its consent, which according to the German law has to be done, BEFORE HE VISITS the website. Even if some websites put that condition in their terms & conditions, it is still illegal, because, by reading the T&C, the user already visited the website. From my point of view this will become a big thing in Germany, as the government argues about the storage of data by the government for nothing longer than 6 months for years now.

This new expected allegation is just like the one which Google is already facing with its ‘Street View’ in the UK (are the rules in Europe too complicated or they do really protect privacy?). Whatever the case is, lets hope Google comes clean with it.

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