Privacy controls in Google Analytics

Site and/or app owners using Google Analytics and Google Analytics for Firebase (aka “customers”) may find this a useful resource, particularly if they are businesses affected by the European Economic Area’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), or other similar regulations.

For additional information, refer to Safeguarding your data.

  In this article:

Disable Analytics data collection (app)

You can programmatically disable data collection from Android and iOS apps that use the

Learn more about the data that Google Analytics and Google Analytics for Firebase collect.

Disable Analytics data collection (web)

You can programmatically disable data collection from

Users of your website can also opt out from data collection using the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.

Disable collection of granular location and device data

You have the option to enable/disable the collection of granular location-and-device data on a per-region basis. Analytics collects this data by default. If you disable this data collection, Analytics does not collect the following data:

  • City
  • Latitude (of city)
  • Longitude (of city)
  • Browser minor version
  • Browser User-Agent string
  • Device brand
  • Device model
  • Device name
  • Operating system minor version
  • Platform minor version
  • Screen resolution

If you edit the settings and disable collection for a region, then Analytics maintains any historical data that you've collected but no additional data is collected from the time of the change forward.

Learn more

If you disable the collection of granular location and device data for a region, then modeled-key events volume is significantly reduced for that region. Downstream key event modeling and reporting in linked Google Ads and Search Ads 360 accounts is also impacted.

Redact email addresses and user-defined URL query parameters

You can configure your web data streams to perform client-side text redaction of email addresses and user-defined URL query parameters.

Learn more about Data redaction.

Disable collection of Google signals data

When you activate Google signals, you have the option to enable or disable collection of those signals on a per-region basis. If you edit Google-signals settings and disable collection for a region, then Analytics maintains any historical data that you've collected but no additional data is collected from the time of the change forward. If you disable collection of Google-signals data, you will not have access to remarketing lists based on third-party advertising identifiers, advertising reporting features, or demographics and interests.

Learn more

If you deactivate Google signals, then remarketing based on third-party advertising identifiers is not available for the impacted regions. Downstream key event modeling and reporting in linked Google Ads accounts is also impacted.

Disable advertising features (app)

You can programmatically disable collection of data for advertising features from Android and iOS apps that use the:

Learn more about the data that Google Analytics and Google Analytics for Firebase collect.

Disable advertising features (web)

You can programmatically disable collection of data for advertising features from:

  • Google Analytics 4 properties with gtag.js (instructions)
  • Universal Analytics properties with gtag.js (instructions)
  • Universal Analytics properties with analytics.js (instructions)

Disable advertising personalization (app)

You can programmatically disable advertising personalization for data from Android and iOS apps that use the Google Analytics for Firebase SDK (instructions).

Learn more about the data that Google Analytics and Google Analytics for Firebase collect.

Disable advertising personalization (web)

You can programmatically disable advertising personalization for data from:

  • Google Analytics 4 properties with gtag.js (instructions)
  • Universal Analytics properties with gtag.js (instructions)
  • Universal Analytics properties with analytics.js (instructions)

IP Masking

IP masking is available in Google Analytics for both web and app. Learn how IP masking works.

Universal Analytics properties

You can mask IP addresses for Universal Analytics properties using

Google Analytics 4 properties

In Google Analytics 4, IP masking is not necessary since IP addresses are not logged or stored.

Set the retention period for the Analytics data that you collect

You can set the retention period for data you collect from

User-level Data Access and Portability

For Universal Analytics properties, you can pull event information for any given user identifier via the User Explorer report or the User Activity API. These features allow you to analyze and export event level data for a single user identifier. In addition, 360 customers can integrate with BigQuery to create a full export of all event data associated with their users in a single queryable repository.

For Google Analytics 4 properties, the same functionality exists within Explorations. You can pull event information for any given user identifier via the User Explorer report or the User Activity report. These features allow you to analyze and export event level data for a single user identifier. You can also use the User Activity report to delete individual user records. In addition, you can integrate with BigQuery to create a full export of all event data associated with users in a single queryable repository.

Delete end user data stored on a mobile device

The Google Analytics for Firebase SDK lets you add controls to your app so that users can delete Analytics data stored locally on their mobile devices, and reset the app-instance ID in the process. Learn more about using resetAnalyticsData on Android and iOS.

The SDK also lets you control whether or not any Analytics data is collected from the app on a specific device. Learn more about using setAnalyticsCollectionEnabled on Android and iOS.

Delete end user data stored on Analytics servers

You can use the Google Analytics API to honor requests from users to delete data about them from Analytics servers on a per-app, per-device basis. Learn more about the User Deletion API.

Allow for / Disable ads personalization for any property

You can control whether data collected from end users for any property may be used for ads personalization via the advanced setting to allow for ads personalization.

Use the Google Analytics for Firebase iOS SDK to register attribution with SKAdNetwork

Unless app developers choose to opt out via a static configuration flag (instructions), the Google Analytics for Firebase (GA4F) iOS SDK will automatically call, upon first open, Apple's SKAdNetwork registerAppForAdNetworkAttribution API, which provides app-install-validation information to ad networks registered with Apple.

The SKAdNetwork API has been updated for iOS 14 and will be relied on more heavily for app-install attribution due to Apple’s new privacy and security features announced in WWDC 2020, which now require app developers to obtain consent via a privacy-disclosure pop-up before using the identifier for advertisers (IDFA) to track iOS users.

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