Website owners in Berlin need consent for using Google Analytics

According to the Berlin Data Protection Office, if you’re a website owner collecting and sending data to third-party services (like Google Analytics) who are also using that data “for own purpose uses” in Berlin, you are now required to ask for specific consent from visitors in order to collect that information. 

This means you can only use Google Analytics or similar services once you’ve gotten consent from visitors. In contrast, Matomo does not use information from Cloud or On-Premise users for “own purpose uses”. This means with a few configurations Matomo can be used without you needing to show a consent screen.

Consent is also needed when keystrokes or mouse movements are recorded. That means you need users to consent to your usage of features like Heatmaps and Session Recordings.

It’s advised that website owners in Berlin should check their websites for third-party content and tracking mechanisms. If you do use these third-party functions that require consent, you must either get consent or remove the functions. Consent is only effective if the visitor (whose data you’re collecting) is informed and agrees to their data being processed.

Currently this applies to website owners in Berlin, and should likely be applied for the whole of Germany to be on the safe side.