EU-US data transfers uncertainties: How an EU-based analytics platform can improve your marketing performance

European digital marketers are facing unprecedented levels of disruption. Increasing regulatory scrutiny and growing doubts about the legality of EU-US data transfers demand an urgent reassessment of your tech stack. In the very near future, relying on US-based analytics and consent platforms will expose your organization to operational, legal, and financial risks that can no longer be ignored.

This article details the recent regulatory changes impacting cross-Atlantic data transfers and highlights the challenges marketers are facing. We’ll also demonstrate why you should look for an EU-based web analytics solution and outline the steps you need to take to ensure fully compliant analytics.

The current state of data transfers between the EU and the US

The transfer of personal data between the EU and the US has been disputed for years, primarily due to fundamental differences in privacy laws. The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) enforces strict individual rights and control over personal data. The US, however, operates with more fragmented privacy laws, and intelligence agencies have broad data access powers under legislation such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA 702).

These concerns have triggered major legal challenges, including the Schrems I and Schrems II cases, invalidating previous data transfer frameworks (Safe Harbor and Privacy Shield). The core issue is that these frameworks failed to adequately protect EU citizens’ data against US government surveillance.

Recent political developments 

Recent developments in the US political landscape and European regulatory actions have intensified the situation, with significant implications for businesses, regulators, and transatlantic relations. Donald Trump’s return to the US presidency is a major source of uncertainty. 

Situation in the United States

Early in his new term, Trump questioned the Biden-era executive orders that underpin the Transatlantic Data Privacy Framework (DPF), adopted in July 2023. It introduced three key elements:

• Data Protection Review Court (DPRC): An independent redress body allowing EU individuals to challenge how US intelligence agencies handle data with binding decision-making authority.
• Executive order 14086: Signed by President Biden in October 2022, establishes proportionality and necessity requirements for US surveillance activities.
• Self-certification system: Requires US companies to publicly commit to DPF principles for streamlined transfers administered by the Department of Commerce.

However, the most destabilizing event was the loss of quorum at the US Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) after Trump requested the resignation of its Democratic members in January 2025. The shutdown of PLOB, a core oversight body referenced in the DPF, has intensified European doubts about the long-term viability and independence of US redress mechanisms for EU citizens. As privacy advocate Max Schrems of NOYB points out, the current oversight mechanisms “may not even stand the test of just the first days of a Tump presidency.”

European regulatory actions

In response to these developments, European Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) and governments are taking a series of regulatory and political actions, signaling a broader shift in the EU-US relationship:

• Norway: The Norwegian DPA issued a new guidance warning against EU-US data transfers, citing concerns about the legal framework’s stability and adequacy.
• Netherlands: The Dutch Parliament voted to reduce reliance on US tech companies, requiring government agencies to prioritize European cloud and data processing alternatives.
• Denmark: The Danish Ministry of Industry recommended that companies develop exit strategies from American cloud services.
• Germany: Germany’s Interior Minister stated that businesses should develop contingency plans, as the government can no longer guarantee the long-term stability of transatlantic data flow mechanisms.

These steps reflect a growing consensus in Europe that relying on US-based solutions carries increasing legal and strategic risks.

Why you need an EU-based web analytics solution

The current regulatory environment is unstable. With European authorities increasingly willing to issue immediate compliance orders, companies relying on US-based analytics tools risk sudden operational paralysis. Using non-compliant data tools risks fines of up to 4% of global revenue under GDPR. A single enforcement decision could leave marketers scrambling to replace core infrastructure overnight. 

Main challenges for marketers

As the legal landscape shifts faster than ever, marketers face new and pressing challenges. Understanding these risks is the first step toward securing your data strategy.

Campaign interruptions that devastate performance metrics

Regulatory actions often come without warning. In past cases, enforcement orders have immediately suspended marketing tools tied to unlawful data transfers. For marketers, this means pausing campaigns mid-flight, cutting off personalization, and creating reporting gaps that impede optimization.

Analytics blackouts that force blind decision-making

Turning off third-party analytics due to compliance concerns means you’re flying blind. You lose the ability to segment audiences, evaluate creative performance, or justify spend allocation. Many brands using tools like GA or Meta Ads have already reported shifting to temporary EU-hosted or server-side alternatives that may offer reduced capabilities and slower insights.

Attribution failures that cut down your budget

Attribution is how marketers defend their budgets. However, trust in the numbers declines when tracking breaks due to deactivation, missing consent, or blocked data transfers. Without complete visibility into multi-channel performance, marketing ROI becomes harder to prove, and budget reductions follow.

Wasted ad spend that drains resources

Without real-time feedback, marketers overinvest in underperforming ads and can’t scale what’s working. This has been a common pain point for brands forced to migrate analytics setups under pressure, often leading to weeks of reduced optimization and reactive decisions.

Personalization gaps that stall conversions

With consent under scrutiny and restricted data flows, many marketers are forced to revert to generic messaging strategies. When you lose the ability to personalize content by behavior, preferences, or segments, conversion can be significantly lower. 

Competitive disadvantage that costs market share

As some companies scramble to react to policy changes, others with EU-hosted analytics and consent-first marketing stacks gain a competitive advantage. Even short periods of interrupted optimization can create lasting performance gaps.

Key features to look for in your next analytics platform

Selecting an analytics platform that is future-proof and fully compliant with European standards is essential. As 78% of EU users say they would abandon brands that mishandle data, proactively adopting compliant solutions signals responsibility and builds loyalty. Here is the list of the most important features you should seek:

Full data residency and processing within the EU/EEA

Ensure all user data is collected, processed, and stored exclusively within the EU or EEA to avoid legal uncertainties related to international data transfers.

Compliance with GDPR and upcoming regulations (Data Act, DORA)

Your analytics provider should meet current GDPR requirements and be prepared for new EU regulations like the Data Act and DORA to demonstrate a commitment to ongoing compliance.

Transparent data governance and security certifications (ISO 27001, SOC2)

Look for platforms with recognized security certifications, such as ISO 27001 or SOC2, demonstrating robust data governance, risk management, and security practices.

Compliant consent management and automation of data subject rights

The analytics platform should offer built-in tools for managing user consent, automating responses to data subject requests, and documenting compliance actions.

Flexibility to integrate with other marketing tools

Choose analytics platforms that connect easily with your existing marketing stack, CRM, and advertising tools to streamline tracking and boost campaign performance.

User-friendly interface with customizable dashboards

An intuitive, customizable dashboard empowers your team to access insights quickly and tailor reports to specific business needs.

Support for anonymization and pseudonymization of personal data

Select an analytics platform that offers strong anonymization and pseudonymization features, such as IP masking and cookieless tracking, to reduce compliance risks.

Clear data export and deletion options

Your next analytics platform should provide straightforward options for exporting, deleting, and modifying user data to fulfill the GDPR’s rights to data portability and to be forgotten.

Leading EU-based analytics alternatives

Finding alternatives to US-based analytics platforms that carry EU-US data transfer risks is not an easy task. Find below a list of providers that offer varying combinations of compliance protection, marketing optimization, and operational integration.

Piwik PRO Analytics Suite

Piwik PRO Analytics Suite is a comprehensive EU-based analytics platform designed to ensure full compliance with data protection laws while delivering powerful marketing insights. It offers flexible hosting options across multiple EU countries, supports both event-based tracking and session-level aggregation, and enables advanced user behavior analysis with features like funnels and user flows.

Plausible

Plausible is a lightweight, privacy-focused analytics tool fully hosted in the EU. As it doesn’t use cookies or collect personal data, you don’t need to include it in your website consent banner or cookie policy. It’s an open-source and GDPR-compliant solution that offers transparent and minimalistic analytics.

Simple Analytics

Simple Analytics is a Dutch provider that processes and stores all data within the EU, ensuring full GDPR compliance. It does not use cookies or track personal data, so you don’t need to include it in your website consent banner or cookie policy. The platform delivers easy-to-understand reports, suitable for companies that need simple, privacy-respecting insights.

eTracker

eTracker is a German analytics provider that processes and stores all data exclusively in Germany, ensuring compliance with GDPR and other European privacy regulations. It offers cookieless tracking options, real-time analytics, conversion tracking, and customizable dashboards, making it a trusted choice for privacy-conscious EU organizations.

Statcounter

Statcounter is an open-source, self-hosted analytics tool designed for EU-based organizations. It collects no personal data and uses no cookies, ensuring GDPR compliance and a privacy focus. The platform only provides essential website metrics, making it basic, privacy-first analytics.

	Country	Analytics capabilities	Free version	Privacy friendliness
Piwik PRO	Poland
Plausible	Estonia
Simple Analytics	Netherlands
eTracker	Germany
Statcounter	Ireland

Piwik PRO Analytics Suite – the ideal EU-based web analytics platform for marketers

Transitioning to Piwik PRO ensures you meet stringent data protection requirements and maintain or even enhance your analytical capabilities. These key features prove it is the best choice for compliant, EU-based web analytics.

Simplified privacy compliance

Piwik PRO enables you to collect data in a manner that is fully compliant with privacy laws, including GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA, and TTDSG. Privacy settings embedded directly in the user interface make managing compliance intuitive and straightforward.

Complete EU data sovereignty

It offers hosting across multiple EU countries, guaranteeing data residency and complete control over where your data is stored. Such options help you adhere to local data residency requirements, minimizing transfer risks.

Data residency and sovereignty

Piwik PRO allows you to choose data storage locations, ensuring compliance with local data residency requirements.

Advanced analytics with familiar concepts

Piwik PRO supports both event-based tracking and session-level aggregation, allowing marketers to analyze user behavior with advanced reports such as funnels and user flows. 

Also, to avoid chaos with your data, you can implement Piwik PRO alongside your existing Google Analytics setup. This will ensure continuity in your reporting when the EU-US DTF is invalidated as well as the safety of your data in case of any further changes in European or US privacy laws. 

Seamless migration and setup

Implement Piwik PRO with a single tracking tag and start analyzing data in under an hour. The platform follows a familiar logic for those transitioning from Universal Analytics or GA4.

Well-integrated product suite

Benefit from an advanced analytics ecosystem that includes a Customer Data Platform, a Tag Manager, a Consent Manager, and multiple integration options for better data activation and personalization.

The strong connection between analytics and consent management

EU-based consent management is equally important when implementing an EU-based analytics platform. Proper analytics becomes meaningless if your consent management platform still transfers data to the US. The solution is simple: pair your EU-based analytics with EU-based consent management to create a compliant and fully protected marketing intelligence system.

Cookie Information, headquartered in Copenhagen with a few data centers across the EU, has established itself as the marketer’s first choice when both compliance protection and performance optimization are priorities. 

As an EU-based consent management platform, Cookie Information benefits your marketing operations in at least 5 ways:

• Industry-leading consent optimization technology.
• Proprietary cookie scanning engine that automatically identifies and categorizes all marketing technologies, including those commonly missed by basic scanners.
• A strong consent record and export system designed to satisfy inquiries by data protection authorities (DPAs) about marketing data flows.
• Seamless integration with all major CMSs such as Shopify, Drupal, and WordPress, as well as advertising and analytics platforms like Google Tag Manager and Piwik PRO.
• Multi-language cookie consent banners for a localized website experience.

Conclusion: How to protect marketing performance and compliance when the future is uncertain

With international politics potentially reducing your ROI, acting proactively to protect your marketing operations is crucial. 

Start with a comprehensive audit of your marketing technology, focusing on EU-US data transfers and compliance mechanisms. Next, you should deploy EU-based analytics tools to replace the ones sending data to the US, ensuring both compliance and uninterrupted marketing insights. Review advertising platform data flows to implement EU data residency options where possible. 

As with your remaining marketing stack you should implement an EU-based consent management solution that optimizes consent rates and integrates easily with your existing setup. Finally, make sure to showcase your privacy-first approach to marketing – positioning your brand as the privacy leader in your niche – to build consumer trust.

A risk-free decision is implementing an European analytics solution like Piwik PRO alongside your current US-based analytics tools. With free options available, this parallel approach ensures marketing continuity while building valuable historical data in a privacy-compliant environment.

By following these strategic steps, you’ll minimize regulatory risks, avoid disruptions, and secure your marketing performance in the turbulent EU privacy landscape.