GDPR Analytics Requirements Explained in Plain English

You've read that GDPR affects your website analytics. You've seen the horror stories about fines. But when you try to find out what you actually need to do, you get 4,000-word legal articles that leave you more confused than when you started. Here's the short version: GDPR doesn't ban analytics. It just has rules about how you collect and process visitor data. Depending on which analytics tool you use, compliance is either a significant burden or essentially automatic. What the GDPR Actually Says About Analytics The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) applies when you process personal data of people in the EU. Personal data means any information that can identify a person — directly or indirectly. For website analytics, the relevant personal data typically includes: IP addresses. Yes, IP addresses are personal data under GDPR. The Court of Justice of the EU confirmed this in 2016 (Breyer v. Germany). Cookies and device identifiers. Any unique identifier stored on a visitor's devi