How to manage your Google Analytics data retention controls for GDPR compliance in 2018
In response to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) act, Google is asking all their customers to update their data settings, in the Google Analytics Tool.
On May 25th 2018 (the day GDPR takes effect), Google Analytics will activate their Data Retention Control Tool.
What does this mean for you or your clients?
The new data retention control tool allows you to:
- Select the length of time that data will be kept in the system. The options will be 14, 26, 38 or 50 months. Admins can also select “do not automatically expire”.
- Reset the retention period on new activity sessions with unique user IDs.
- Choose not to select a retention period and have the data associated with that ID be deleted.
Why does this matter?
This new tool will not change the way analytics works overall, but it does shift the burden of data collection onto website administrators and webmasters. Allowing website owners, and agencies that manage them, a way of self regulating.
If you’re an agency that manages a client’s analytics account, then you need to be discussing with them how long they want their data to be stored – like, right now. We’ve found most clients agree that 50 months is good amount of time to store historical data, in order for it to remain useful for comparison, to current campaigns and strategy.
How do you set the data retention tool?
It’s a fairly straight forward process. Locate the administrative settings on the website you wish to modify the retention settings. Go to Property Settings > Tracking Info > Data Retention > User and Event Data Retention.
Do you need help making these changes? Get in touch with us for a chat.