Google Analytics Security Risks: A CISO's Headache

CISOs need to carefully assess the risks associated with sharing data with third parties, particularly when using Google Analytics. The article highlights that Google Analytics can inadvertently collect sensitive data, such as personally identifiable information (PII) embedded in URLs (names, emails, birthdates, etc.) or form field values. To prevent this, CISOs must ensure that when configuring Google Analytics, all query parameters, form inputs, and dynamic page elements that could contain sensitive data are filtered out. Otherwise, this data could be tracked and collected by Google Analytics, posing significant security risks.