The impact of the GDPR on German online behavior

: an analysis of traffic, cookie compliance and online harms

Abstract

The European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was implemented in May 2018 to enhance privacy protection. Its implementation has changed the digital landscape and increased awareness of data privacy rights. This study assesses the impact of the GDPR on German online traffic. We analyzed traffic data from The Nielson Company for the top 1000 websites in Germany and manually created a dataset to track cookie compliance for these websites. We find no evidence that German traffic changed. The study used a difference in-differences approach to compare three traffic patterns: (1) changes in German traffic to websites that show cookie consent notices compared to those that do not; (2) comparison of German traffic to the United States; and (3) comparison of German traffic inside to outside the EU. The results showed a decrease in page views per person and time per person when comparing German traffic to the United States. However, statistical analysis did not reveal a significant difference. The study also found that compliance with the GDPR occurred gradually over time, with non-compliance being more prevalent among websites with higher harm scores.

Date of Award	2 Feb 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Miguel Godinho de Matos (Supervisor)