Is Google Tag Manager legal in Europe?

✅ Yes, Google Tag Manager is legal in Europe. However, its configuration and use must comply with data protection regulations, including the European Union's RGPD (General Data Protection Regulation).

Google Tag Manager

Google Tag Manager (or GTM for short) is a tag management tool that allows users to manage and deploy tags on their website without having to access the source code directly.

☝ A tag is a piece of JavaScript code that can be executed to send data to a third-party platform such as Facebook, Google Ads, Hotjar etc. via an HTTP request.

A Tag Management System simply acts as an intermediary between your website and third-party platforms.

Two possible configurations: client-side or server-side

Data collected by GTM

Calling up GTM on a site generates a request to Google's servers. Google Tag Manager can also collect global data to monitor and diagnose stability, performance and installation quality.

Althoughthis data does not contain any personal information, HTTP request logs can access data such as IP address and other standard information during requests with the server.

According to Google, these logs are deleted within 14 days. However ⚠️ The use of Google Tag Manager in this context can therefore be contentious according to legal texts. Here we're referring more to consent than to the issue of transferring personal data to the US. Indeed, even if GTM doesn't write cookies, we would still need user consent.

💡 RecommendationsUsea service provider like Starfox Analytics to Proxify GTM and avoid sending the user's IP when calling libraries.