Attention to Analytics without anonymization

Actually, it is an old hat that you should not use Google Analytics in Germany without AnonymizeIP. There is a threat of warnings, damages and, in case of doubt, the raised index finger of a data protection officer. However, it is currently very controversial in German courts whether GDPR warnings can be issued at all (see this article and this article).

Now the District Court of Dresden has issued a ruling that can be relevant for many operators of portals and websites, as it increases the number of persons entitled to sue enormously. It has granted such a claim to every visitor to the website and based the asserted claims on a violation of the general right of personality – and not on data protection standards. The court, allegedly, weighed up interests and found a “serious interference” and therefore an injunction under Section 823 para. 1 i. V. m. 1004 BGB analogous.

The district court set the value of the dispute at 6,000 euros, resulting in costs of almost 600.00 euros. Even if additional claims for damages were not granted and the court granted a warning in advance (which could possibly reduce the number of claimants), the risk is enormous.

Since AnonomizeIP has further flaws and Google Analytics is also quite controversial, website operators in Germany should carefully consider whether and in what form they use Google’s statistical tool at all, certainly not without the “addition to the data processing” in Analytics’ account settings. This applies despite the currently inconsistent jurisprudence and possible criticism of questions of the concrete application of certain standards by the District Court of Dresden.