Is Yandex Metrica GDPR compliant?

What does Yandex Metrica do?

Russian analytics that includes session recording by default. Processing happens outside the EEA in a country with no adequacy decision, which makes a lawful transfer basis difficult rather than merely paperwork.

Does Yandex Metrica need consent?

Yes. Yandex Metrica is Analytics, which is never strictly necessary for a website to function. Under ePrivacy Article 5(3), and its national transpositions, storing or reading anything on the device for that purpose requires consent first, and that consent has to be as easy to refuse as it is to give.

ePrivacy Art. 5(3) · TDDDG § 25 (DE) · TKG 2021 § 165(3) (AT) · GDPR Art. 6(1)(a)

Does Yandex Metrica send data outside the EEA?

Yes. Yandex Metrica processes data outside the European Economic Area, so you need a transfer mechanism under Chapter V and you have to say so in your privacy policy. In practice this means standard contractual clauses, or a provider certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.

GDPR Art. 44 · GDPR Art. 46

What can I use instead of Yandex Metrica?

How do we detect Yandex Metrica?

We load your page in a real browser as a first-time visitor who clicks nothing, then look at what it contacted. Yandex Metrica is recognised by requests to mc.yandex.ru and mc.yandex.com, and we report whether it merely loaded or actually sent data, and whether it set a cookie before any choice was made.