CODEWITHSUNDEEP
google-analyticsgoogle-analytics-api
John O
John O

Reputation: 524

Is it possible to selectively delete data (specifi page URLs) from Google Analytics?

I'm pretty sure the answer to this question is "no", but I would like to get a definitive answer from an official source, and also understand what my alternative options might be.

Long story short, my app has old data in it that used to include user email addresses as a GET parameter. Those URLs are showing up as unique page view URLs in Google analytics, like this:

Example of a path page URL in Google analytics containing an email GET parameter

I don't want to be recording email addresses in my Google Analytics account (for privacy reasons), and I have fixed the code that was causing this in the first place, but I also want to delete or scrub the old data that currently exists in Google Analytics.

From everything I've read, it doesn't sound like this is possible without completely deleting the property, maybe even the account?

To be clear, I am NOT interested in creating new views that don't include URLs with email parameters in them, or otherwise change the view and not the data. The data needs to be gone and be completely inaccessible to anyone with access to this Google Analytics account.

Here are the options I've come up with:

  1. Delete the property and start over. I'm pretty sure this will actually delete the collected data, but it's not clear to me if I would have to actually delete the account itself to achieve that.
  2. Set the data retention time to the lowest possible value (looks like 14 months right now) and wait 14 months for it to go away https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/7667196?hl=en
  3. Perform some kind of magic to get in contact with an actual human at Google who could help me scrub or remove this data.

Does this sound right? Are there options I'm missing? If there's a way to do this through a Google API that would not be a problem.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1365

Answers (2)

Dmitry Melnikov
Dmitry Melnikov

Reputation: 96

If this is still a relevant issue. GoogleAnalytics provides a way to delete some data. Universal Analytics https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9450800?hl=en and GA4 https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9940393?hl=en&ref_topic=2919631

Upvotes: 2

kgrg
kgrg

Reputation: 1633

You are right: changing the data, that you have collected, and Google Analytics have already processed, is not possible. You have the option to make changes during processing with various filters, e.g. Search-and-replace filters, but as it is written in this official support article:

Like all filters, search-and-replace filters only apply to hits collected after you've applied the filter to the view (filters cannot change historical data).

Regarding you suggested options:

  1. Deleting a view or property will result in a permanent loss of data after a 35 days period of waiting time. (While this could be undone.) So unless the requirement of scrubbing the collected PII is more important than having your historical data, this should not be a way to go. The same applies to deleting the whole account, so it would be enough to delete affected properties or views.
  2. From the article you have linked as well, you can see, that data retention is about removing user and event level data, and it will not affect the data in aggregated reports. My understanding is, that an already created, page level report will keep showing the page with an email address:

Keep in mind that standard aggregated Google Analytics reporting is not affected.

I hope these references help you to evaluate your options. Sorry for not being able to come up with a solution, but the basic concept is, as highlighted in this Google article:

Once Analytics processes the data, it’s stored in a database where it can’t be changed

Upvotes: 1

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