Today, we’re diving into a nifty GA4 feature that helps you redact sensitive data like email addresses and query parameters. This is useful for both data protection issues and for data quality purposes.
Why Redact Data?
Redacting data is crucial for privacy and GDPR and data privacy compliance reasons. You don’t want to accidentally collect sensitive user information. This can result in your Google Analtyics Property being closed by Google, and it can also cause reputational damage. Redacting query parameters from data in GA4 helps prevent row fragmentation in reports. This is because for page_view events, query parameters will result in identical page_views being separated into different rows due to the value of the query parameter.
If you prefer, you can watch our YouTube video here, or read the blog post below.
Step-by-Step Guide
Head to Admin Area
- Go to Admin: Open your GA4 property and head to the Admin area.
- Data Streams: Click on ‘Data Streams’ and select your web data stream.
Redact Email Addresses
- Redact Data: Scroll down to find the ‘Redact Data’ option.
- Enable Radio Button: Simply enable the radio button next to ‘Email Addresses’.
Redact Query Parameters
- Check Your Data: Before redacting query parameters, check which ones are actually in your data. We recommend creating a free-form report in GA4.
- Add Query Parameters: In the ‘Redact Data’ section, you can add up to 30 query parameters. Separate them with commas.
For example:
gtm_debug,fbclid
- Save: Don’t forget to hit save!
Verify
After a day or two, revisit your free-form reports to make sure the redacted data is no longer appearing.
Popular Query Parameters to Consider
Check out our list of popular query parameters like gtm_debug and fbclid.
Final Thoughts
That’s it! A simple yet effective way to keep your GA4 data clean and compliant. Check back in a day or two to make sure it’s all working as it should.
You can also check out more of our blogs here.
