Italy has joined other European countries, Austria, France, and Holland, in banning Google Analytics.
The countries have banned the service on the grounds that it collected user data on behaviour, demographics, and acquisition techniques and transmitted it to the US for marketing reasons, actions which violate the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
However, the ban on the service is not likely to last for long as Google rolls out Google Analytics 4 (GA4) next year.
Unlike Universal Analytics which collects website data like users’ browser client information, device IP address and screen resolution, users’ device operating system and preferred language selection, as well as time and date of the site visit, GA4 will not store IP addresses, will process data from the EU in the servers located within the EU and also allows the deactivation of Google Signals to prevent linking with Google accounts.
All of these might make Google Analytics GDPR compliant, forcing the aforementioned countries to reverse their decision to ban the service.