Legal
Is Google Analytics legal to use in the EU and UK?
It can be used lawfully, but it requires consent before it loads, an accurate privacy notice naming Google as a recipient, and a transfer mechanism for data leaving the UK or EU. Several European regulators have ruled specific implementations unlawful, which is a configuration question rather than a blanket ban.
What lawful use requires
- Consent obtained before any Analytics script loads or sets a cookie
- Google named as a recipient in your privacy notice, with a link to its terms
- IP handling and data transfer configured, with the appropriate contractual mechanism
- A retention period set deliberately rather than left at the default
- A working way for a visitor to withdraw consent later
Why regulators objected
The Austrian, French and Italian authorities each found particular Analytics deployments unlawful, primarily over transfers of personal data outside the EU and the identifiers involved. The frameworks have since changed, but the underlying question — where the data goes and under what mechanism — has not gone away.
The simpler alternative
A cookieless analytics tool that aggregates without identifying individuals removes the consent requirement, the transfer question and the banner in one step. If you do not run remarketing campaigns, you are unlikely to miss anything you were actually using.
The longer version
This answer is deliberately short. If you want the full treatment, Buying a website: the questions that decide what you actually own covers it in about 5 minutes — free, ungated, written from client work.
Who answered this
Anas Bin Masud builds e-commerce sites and does technical SEO for businesses in the UK, Canada and Pakistan — fifteen live client sites, six of them stores taking real payments. These answers come from those projects rather than from a content brief. More about how I work, or ask me something directly.