Sweden bans the use of Google Analytics

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On July 3, Sweden's Privacy Service (IMY) ordered four companies to stop using Google Analytics, a tool that measures and analyzes website traffic but indirectly transfers user personal information to the US.

IMY previously conducted an inspection of the use of Google Analytics by Swedish companies, after the Austrian data protection organization NOYB sent dozens of complaints to many European countries about Google's privacy issues. NOYB has assessed that the use of Google Analytics for traffic statistics by companies has resulted in the transfer of European data to the US, in violation of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

After checking, IMY concluded that the data of 4 companies using the above tool (including Coop supermarket chain, newspaper Dagens Industri, Tele2 telecommunications group and online commerce site CDON) sent personal data to Google Analytics servers in the US, and these four companies "failed to implement the necessary technical security measures to protect users in accordance with EU standards".

IMY fined Tele2 and CDON 12 million kronor ($1.1 million) and 300,000 kronor respectively, and banned the companies from using Google Analytics. Only Coop and newspaper Dagens Industri There are measures in place to protect the data being transferred, so there is no penalty.

NOYB welcomed the IMY ruling, stating that although many other European countries such as Austria, France and Italy have found the tool to be in violation of GDPR laws, Sweden is the first country to impose a financial penalty for the use of Google Analytics.