EU Data Privacy Safeguards Put eCommerce Companies at Risk

By Sarah Bendorf.
Updated Oct 31, 2022

SAN FRANCISCO (PRWEB) October 31, 2022 - Google is the unchallenged leader of search engine traffic. Its free analytics tool, Google Analytics, automatically collects user data, including browser information, pages visited, operating system, user location, preferred language, and the user device's IP address.(1) While this data can be a powerful asset for eCommerce companies, it does not meet the EU's data collection standards. Italy, France, Austria, and now Denmark agree that Google Analytics violates GDPR privacy policies by passing user data back to the United States without adequate safeguards.(2) This puts American eCommerce companies in jeopardy of either not being able to operate in the EU or facing GDPR fines. Fortunately, Mikel Lindsaar, an Australian entrepreneur, has partnered with the world's #1 CRM platform to create StoreConnect. Small to mid-sized businesses can use eCommerce integration to seamlessly and lawfully operate in Europe.

Included in the EU privacy debate were concerns that companies cannot comply with the GDPR by simply turning off Google Analytics cookies. It and similar services can still retrieve and record personal data through HTTP parameters or fingerprinting of a device or browser.(3) To comply with the GDPR, businesses need a technical understanding of what data is being collected, where it is going, who receives it, and how the data is protected.

For millions of businesses that rely on Google Analytics, these EU rulings pose a serious problem. U.S. companies cannot operate in Europe without complying. However, if they try to set up servers in Europe and store data there, they are in conflict with the U.S. CLOUD act. American companies are required to provide U.S. authorities with any requested data on their servers, but this would be prohibited for any data stored in Europe.

Fortunately, with the evolution of eCommerce into eCommerce 3.0, integrated solutions like StoreConnect provide eCommerce sales integration and channel consolidation. In addition to providing a single access point for a company's websites, content management systems, marketing platforms, and product management, it guards valuable customer data.

StoreConnect maintains customer data within a business' own systems. This allows small to mid-size companies to continue to benefit from analytics while remaining GDPR compliant.

'With StoreConnect, small and mid-size companies CAN own their data,' explains Mikel Lindsaar, StoreConnect CEO. 'Equally important, businesses using StoreConnect still have the information that enables them to understand what their customers are doing in their store while being GDPR compliant.'

About StoreConnect Mikel Lindsaar, CEO and Founder of StoreConnect, is an experienced technology entrepreneur whose mission is to infuse small and medium-sized businesses with the power to be successful in eCommerce 3.0 and scale to meet growing demand. Small businesses can't waste time setting up their business on a platform only to repeat the process by changing platforms when they want to scale, nor do they want to waste time figuring out how to integrate multiple platforms. StoreConnect (built on the World's Number 1 CRM, Salesforce) gives clients a complete, powerful, configurable eCommerce and CRM solution where they can manage their website, online and in-store sales, provide amazing customer service, run all their digital marketing campaigns, and have up-to-date detailed metrics, reporting and full understanding of their customer. They were awarded Salesforce's 2021 International Partner Innovation Award of the year for the Retail sector and are changing the ease with which small businesses are run ? with a manageable price tag. StoreConnect is Time. Well Spent. Visit https://getStoreConnect.com/

References:? 1. Google Analytics Help Center. '[GA4] Data collection.' Accessed October 9, 2022, Analytics Help, support.google.com/analytics/answer/11593727?hl=en. 2. Robinson, Blair. 'Google Analytics Runs Afoul of GDPR.' July 7, 2022, The National Law Review, natlawreview.com/article/google-analytics-runs-afoul-gdpr. 3. Roosa, Steve; Ritzer, Christoph; Martin, Nadge; Jansen, Jurriaan; Rosenzweig, Daniel; Schuitema, Naomi; Filkina, Natalia; Ghebali, Barbara. 'European rulings on using Google Analytics and how it may affect your business.' February 14, 2022, Data Protection Report. dataprotectionreport.com/2022/02/european-rulings-on-the-use-of-google-analytics-and-how-it-may-affect-your-business/.