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How To Find PII Data In GA4?

Thomas Symann

• 2 min read

Google Analytics 4 has been the go-to choice for website owners who want to keep an eye on their website's performance. PII data is one of the most important points because it’s personally identifiable information. Any piece of information that can reveal someone’s location, contact details, or identity is considered PII.

Google has policies in place that prevent the inclusion of PII in performance reports. However, if you want to find the PII data in Google Analytics 4, we are sharing the steps that will help.

What Is PII Data?

We have already mentioned that it’s personally identifiable information. It usually includes the email address, social security number, phone number, precise user location, and name. If Google finds out that your website is collecting PII or you have it in the reports, it means that Google will end up terminating your account for violating the privacy policy.

Google will notify you that you are collecting PII data, and they will terminate the account if you don’t delete it. In simpler words, they do give a warning.

Finding the PII Data

It’s clear that collecting PII data is not allowed by Google, and the websites that collect it can be terminated for violating the privacy policy. So, if you want to find the PII data, we are sharing the steps that you’ve to follow.

  • Sign in to the Google Analytics 4 account and go to the menu.
  • From the menu, tap on the “behavior” button from the left menu.
  • Click on the content to select all the site content and tap on “all pages.”
  • You have to filter the data by typing “@” in the reports to check for the email address. If there are any email addresses captured in the report, they will be highlighted.

This way, you will be able to identify the personal information that the website has collected, so you can quickly delete it.

Creating Custom Reports to Identify PII Data

Another option is to create customized reports that help identify the PII data. In the section below, we are sharing some steps that will help you!

  • Sign in to the Google Analytics 4 account and tap on the customization button from the left menu.
  • Click on the “custom reports” button from the list of available options.
  • Tap on the “new custom report” button, and you have to select “page views” as metrics and “page” as dimensions. As a result, it’ll ensure that you can check the events as well as other reports.
  • Now, you can use the regex and set up the filter.
  • If the PII is identified in the reports, it will highlight everything which you can remove.

The Bottom Line

Finding the PII data in your website performance reports is important to ensure there are no compromises on security and privacy compliance. We have shared two ways of finding PII data in the reports, such as from the behavior tab and custom reports. So, are you ready to find the data?