Why does gov.uk, a site all about allowing the British public to interact with the British government, use google analytics?
You are shipping all the data about all my interactions with my government off to a third party in another country. Another country that we know has not got the same legal data protection requirements, and one which has now been exposed as having massive internal spying problems.
And no, telling me "google aren't allowed to use the data" and then opening an outsourced helpdesk ticket with another US based company does not cut it.
I'd like an answer to this too from the .gov.uk team.
Ironically enough, their service design manual (which is excelllent and a fantastic resource) has a very good section on analytics tools [1]. Some quotes:
"When deciding which analytics tool is most appropriate for your service, you should consider the following...who owns the data (it should be your organisation!)
Does the solution meet the EU privacy directive and the European Commission’s Directive on Data Protection?
- where is collected data held?
- do data centres meet EU/British data security standards?
- how long is data held for?
- what will happen to the data on termination of the contract- can you export it?
- what access your vendors employees have to your data"
Did they evaluate Google Analytics based on these guidelines?
[1]https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/making-software/analytics-...
The full list of topics in the service design manual https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/browse
I'd love to read it.