How to Keep Personally Identifiable Information Out of Google Analytics

We recently discovered something alarming while auditing one of our client’s websites. Email addresses and phone numbers were appearing in Google Analytics reports, exposing sensitive

visitor information that they never intended to collect.

Collecting personally identifiable information from users can be a big problem. Not only does it

violate privacy regulations like GDPR, but it also puts your business at risk of heavy fines and losing

the trust of your customers.

But here’s the good news: preventing personally identifiable information (PII) from ending up in your

analytics is actually quite simple, once you know how to do it.

We’ve spent years working with Google Analytics on hundreds of websites and have developed a

foolproof system for keeping sensitive data out of your reports. In this guide, we’ll show you exactly

how to protect your visitors’ privacy while still getting all the valuable insights you need from your

analytics data.

What is personally identifiable information and why should you

protect it?

Personally identifiable information (PII) is business owner database any data that, when combined,

can reveal a person’s identity.

n this example, we can see that the URL shows the user’s email address.

Why should you keep your personal information out of Analytics? how-to-keep

Privacy laws like GDPR take the from methodologies to workflows protection of personal data seriously. This is one reason why Google doesn’t allow companies to collect or store PII.

If your Google Analytics account is capturing personally identifiable information, you could get into

trouble, face heavy fines, or have your account suspended.

And it’s not just a technical issue – it can have real consequences for your business. Users expect

companies to respect their privacy. But if they feel their data isn’t secure, they may take their business

elsewhere.

That’s why it’s so important to keep PII out of your Google Analytics data.

With that in mind, we’ll show you how to keep personally identifiable information (PII) out of Google

Analytics. Here’s a quick overview of the two methods we’ll share with you:

Ready?

Let’s get started.

Method 1. Using a plugin to keep personally identifiable

information out of Google Analytics how-to-keep

Navigating Google Analytics can clean email be tricky, especially when trying to ensure compliance

with privacy regulations.

Managing cookie consent , anonymizing IP addresses, and adjusting privacy settings can quickly

become overwhelming. For many people, sorting through these settings and ensuring compliance is

no easy task.

If you are a WordPress user, we have good news for you.

MonsterInsights is the best WordPress analytics plugin and integrates seamlessly with Google

Analytics 4 (GA4). With the Privacy Guard feature, it offers privacy-friendly tracking that can be

managed directly from the WordPress dashboard.

Quick note: MonsterInsights powers our conversion tracking at WPBeginner, helping us monitor

traffic, forms, buttons, referral links, and more with ease. See why we like it in our in-depth

MonsterInsights review !

Step 1. Install and Activate the MonsterInsights Plugin how-to-keep

First, let’s start by creating an account on MonsterInsights . Simply head over to the website and click

on the “Get MonsterInsights Now” button.

• Form submission data , such as personal information entered into contact or registration forms .
• URL data , which is the complete web address of the page, including the domain name , path, and any additional information.
• Query parameters , which are the bits of data in URLs, like “?id=1234”. They often track specific user actions or provide additional information to the website.

To do this, we will navigate to the Insights » Settings » Engagement tab .

From here, you can turn on the “Privacy Guard” button – and that’s it!

MonsterInsights will now help protect personally identifiable information and keep you in compliance with privacy laws.