<Google Analytics 4 and the most important changes in the collection of personal data>

GA4 is Universal Analytics' younger, foreign-educated brother. What exactly does this mean? It comes with a different and very up-to-date school of what data privacy and data collection mean, combining measured information from both websites and mobile applications. GA4 is accustomed to continuous evolution, it is smart and ready to be the tool of the future, as it understands the need to know more about what users do online, but tries not to "aggressively" invade their privacy.

<A smart solution>

Google Analytics 4 is the latest release of Google Analytics. One of the main changes to its smaller sibling Universal Analytics is that it uses Google's machine learning technology to discover new information about browsing a user across multiple platforms and devices.

Universal Analytics, which will stop processing data in 2023, was created for measurements of information collected from the desktop, from independent sessions and cookies. But there was a need for an upgrade, especially due to gaps in the data taken.

The much more independent GA4 does not rely solely on cookies and uses an event-based data model to provide measurements of a user's route.

<Bye-Bye manual setting of events>

If Universal Analytics required Google Tag Manager to track events, GA4 provides automatic tracking of interactions such as clicks on various links or video tracking, without the need for manual and individual configuration. The AU had a series of predefined "accesses", which are now replaced by these events and automatically transmitted, along with other information, to GA4.

A very important feature of Google Analytics 4 is its ability to be used to collect data from both a site and a mobile application.

<What does GA4 not do?>

Google Analytics 4 will no longer store IP addresses, which is extremely important in the current international context of data privacy, where users expect more and more privacy and more control over their data. GA4 also offers several options for controlling privacy:

    • Disable data collection from both the site and applications

    • Disable advertising features on both the site and applications

    • Ability to delete end-user data stored on a mobile device or Analytics servers

    • Whether or not to customize ads