Google Analytics is a staple for millions of business sites across the globe, allowing marketers and analysts to track traffic, sales and customer browsing habits on their website. It’s an invaluable tool to many, which is why we were so pleased to see the recent news that Google Analytics has gone secure and tightened up their security protocol to ensure both you and your clients’ information is kept safe.
Google has emphasised the security of their JavaScript libraries and use HTTP Strict Transport Security, which instructs browsers that support HTTP over SSL to use the robust encryption protocol for all communications related to Google Analytics, including communication between end users, websites, and Google servers.
To boost security even further, there is no method available that allows users to opt out of HTTPS encryption of traffic. Plus, you don’t need to do a thing to enjoy the benefits of these security changes – no code changes are required at all, as Google Analytics handle it fully on their side.
However, one thing to note is that select firewalls block encrypted traffic for security reasons, so any users accessing your site from behind a firewall that blocks HTTPS will not have their data collected by Google Analytics at this time.
