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EuroMetrics CMS

Tag: Privacy

  • Cookie-Free Analytics: How It Works

    Cookie-Free Analytics: How It Works

    Cookie-free analytics represents a fundamental shift in how we approach web measurement. Instead of tracking individual users with persistent identifiers, these solutions use privacy-preserving techniques to deliver accurate insights without cookies.

    The Problem with Traditional Analytics

    Traditional analytics tools like Google Analytics rely heavily on cookies to identify and track users across sessions. This approach creates several problems: it requires cookie consent banners (which many users reject), it’s increasingly blocked by browsers and ad blockers, and it raises serious privacy concerns under GDPR and ePrivacy regulations.

    How Cookie-Free Tracking Works

    Cookie-free analytics uses a combination of techniques to measure website activity without setting any cookies or using persistent identifiers. The primary approach involves processing each page view as an independent event, using temporary, non-persistent signals to estimate metrics like unique visitors.

    These signals may include the date (but not time), the website domain, the page URL, the referring domain, the browser’s language setting, and the screen size. Critically, these signals are hashed and salted with a daily-rotating key, making it impossible to track a user across days or to reconstruct their identity.

    Accuracy Without Cookies

    A common concern is whether cookie-free analytics can be accurate. The answer is yes — and in some cases, more accurate than cookie-based tracking. Why? Because cookie-based analytics often undercounts users who block cookies, use privacy-focused browsers, or reject consent banners. Cookie-free analytics captures all visitors equally.

    Studies have shown that consent-based cookie analytics can miss 30-60% of website traffic due to consent rejection. Cookie-free solutions see every visitor, providing a more complete picture of your website’s performance.

    Legal Advantages

    Since cookie-free analytics doesn’t use cookies or process personal data, it falls outside the scope of the ePrivacy Directive’s consent requirement. This means you can run analytics without a cookie banner, improving user experience while simplifying compliance. Several European DPAs have confirmed that properly implemented cookie-free analytics does not require consent.

    EuroMetrics uses exactly this approach — delivering comprehensive analytics insights while respecting user privacy and eliminating the need for cookie consent banners.

  • EU Data Residency: Why It Matters for Your Business

    EU Data Residency: Why It Matters for Your Business

    Data residency — the physical location where your data is stored and processed — has become one of the most important considerations for European businesses. With increasing regulatory scrutiny and evolving international data transfer rules, keeping data within the EU is no longer just a nice-to-have; it’s a business imperative.

    The Legal Framework

    Under GDPR, transferring personal data outside the EEA requires specific legal mechanisms — adequacy decisions, Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs), or Binding Corporate Rules (BCRs). The Schrems II ruling invalidated the EU-US Privacy Shield, and while the EU-US Data Privacy Framework was adopted in 2023, its long-term stability remains uncertain.

    For businesses that want certainty and simplicity, the most straightforward approach is to keep data within the EU entirely. This eliminates the need for complex transfer mechanisms and reduces the risk of future regulatory disruptions.

    Beyond Compliance: Trust and Sovereignty

    Data residency isn’t just about legal compliance. It’s about trust. European consumers increasingly prefer to do business with companies that respect data sovereignty. A 2025 Eurobarometer survey found that 78% of EU citizens consider data location important when choosing online services.

    For B2B companies, data residency can be a competitive advantage. Enterprise clients often require data residency guarantees in their procurement processes, and being able to demonstrate EU-only data processing can be a deciding factor in winning contracts.

    What EU Data Residency Means in Practice

    True EU data residency means that all data — at rest and in transit — stays within the European Economic Area. This includes primary databases, backup systems, CDN nodes, processing pipelines, and support access. It also means that no employee or system outside the EEA can access the data, even for troubleshooting.

    Many global analytics providers claim “EU data residency” but still route data through non-EU systems for processing, or allow support staff in non-EU countries to access data. True data residency requires end-to-end EU infrastructure.

    The EuroMetrics Approach

    EuroMetrics was built with EU data residency as a core principle. All data is processed and stored exclusively on servers located within the EU, with no cross-border data transfers. Our infrastructure runs entirely on EU-based cloud providers, ensuring complete data sovereignty for our customers.