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Technical audit · 2026-05-31

enterprise.gov.ie

Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment of Ireland
IE

Ireland's Department of Enterprise. 41 requests, 9 domains. Two analytics tools simultaneously — Google Analytics and Matomo Cloud — launch prior to consent. UA-65332340-1: Universal Analytics, discontinued by Google three years ago. The policy declares an opt-in model; the HAR shows otherwise.

Timeline of the leak

+212 ms · before the banner
ajax.googleapis.com and fonts.googleapis.com — jQuery UI and Google Fonts load immediately from Google's servers in the USA.
+213 ms · before the banner
www.googletagmanager.com (UA-65332340-1) — Google Tag Manager loads without consent. A Universal Analytics ID — a protocol discontinued by Google in July 2023.
+213 ms · before the banner
code.jquery.com — jQuery 3.6.1 and jQuery Migrate from an external CDN.
+236 ms · before the banner
cdn.matomo.cloud — the Matomo Analytics JS loads in parallel with GTM.
+255 ms · before the banner
fonts.gstatic.com — PT Sans font files load from Google's servers.
+360 ms · before the banner
www.google-analytics.com (analytics.js) — the Google Analytics script executes.
+362 ms · before the banner
enterprisegov.matomo.cloud/matomo.php — Matomo's first tracking ping: records the page title, idsite=13.
+2992 ms
enterprisegov.matomo.cloud/matomo.php — a second Matomo request carrying form parameters (fa_vid, fa_id, fa_fv). Set-Cookie is zero across the entire session.

Declared versus actual

✓ Matomo Analytics — mentioned in the privacy policy — declared
✓ Analytical cookies — declared as a category with opt-out — declared
+ Google Tag Manager (UA-65332340-1) — not mentioned by name — not declared
+ Google Analytics (analytics.js) — not mentioned by name — not declared
+ ajax.googleapis.com — not mentioned — not declared
+ code.jquery.com — not mentioned — not declared
+ fonts.googleapis.com / fonts.gstatic.com — not mentioned — not declared

Transfer timings

+212 ms ajax.googleapis.com

jQuery UI 1.11.1 from the Google CDN. USA.

+212 ms fonts.googleapis.com

Google Fonts — PT Sans. USA.

+213 ms www.googletagmanager.com

GTM UA-65332340-1. Universal Analytics. USA.

+213 ms code.jquery.com

jQuery 3.6.1 + jQuery Migrate.

+236 ms cdn.matomo.cloud

Matomo Analytics JS. InnoCraft EU cloud.

+255 ms fonts.gstatic.com

PT Sans woff2. Google's servers. USA.

+360 ms www.google-analytics.com

analytics.js — Universal Analytics. USA.

+362 ms enterprisegov.matomo.cloud

matomo.php — tracking ping. idsite=13.

Detected trackers

Indicators of GDPR non-compliance

Context

The Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment (DETE) is Ireland’s state body overseeing business, employment, and tourism policy. HAR: 41 requests, 9 domains. Of these, 29 requests go to the first-party domain enterprise.gov.ie, with the remaining 12 going to eight external domains, seven of which are American.

Two analytics tools — both prior to consent

The site runs Google Analytics and Matomo Cloud simultaneously. Both launch on the very first page load, before any interaction with the banner:

GTM with the ID UA-65332340-1 loads at +213 ms. www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js executes at +360 ms. Matomo’s JS from cdn.matomo.cloud loads at +236 ms, with the first tracking request to matomo.php at +362 ms.

The privacy policy describes Matomo and declares analytics cookies as a category with opt-out — meaning it formally assumes analytics is enabled by default and the user may opt out. This alone conflicts with the opt-in principle required by the ePrivacy Regulations for non-strictly-necessary cookies. But the HAR shows that even the opt-out mechanism does not function: both tools activate immediately, without waiting for any decision from the user.

Universal Analytics — discontinued three years ago

The ID UA-65332340-1 belongs to Universal Analytics, the previous generation of Google Analytics. Google officially discontinued Universal Analytics in July 2023. The request to www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js in a HAR from May 2026 points to a GTM configuration that has not been updated in over three years. What exactly happens on Google’s side with these requests — whether the data is processed or discarded — cannot be determined from the HAR. What is certain: the script loads, and the request is sent to Google’s servers in the USA.

Google Fonts and the Ajax CDN

At +212 ms, fonts.googleapis.com (PT Sans) and ajax.googleapis.com (jQuery UI 1.11.1) load. Both are Google servers in the USA. Google Fonts transmits the user’s IP address with every request; both the fonts and jQuery UI could be hosted locally without any loss of functionality. code.jquery.com adds two further requests to the jQuery Foundation’s servers.

Set-Cookie — zero

Despite activity across eight external domains, none of the 41 requests in the HAR sets a cookie via Set-Cookie. This partially softens the picture, but does not eliminate the fact that IP addresses and behavioral data are transmitted to external services prior to consent.

Conclusion

enterprise.gov.ie violates the opt-in principle on two levels: architecturally (analytics activates prior to consent) and in its documentation (GTM and Google Analytics are not named specifically in the policy). Running two analytics tools in parallel — Google Analytics and Matomo — with a non-functioning consent mechanism, a deprecated Universal Analytics ID, and five unmentioned external domains together form a complete set of typical GDPR violations for a government site. The fix requires: moving all analytics behind the consent banner, migrating from UA to GA4 or dropping Google Analytics in favor of a locally hosted Matomo, hosting fonts and jQuery locally, and updating the policy.

Evidence
Original (audit)
HAR file: ie/enterprise-gov-ie-2026-05-31.har
SHA-256: 6b1326be610a37a9863b1ae364e5ca5d1383e24ddfe94e45def0a735703270a1
Re-check snapshot
Awaiting changes
HAR files are stored on EU infrastructure (Proton Drive). SHA-256 is published for integrity verification.
IMPORTANT: before filing a complaint with the regulator, first contact the company directly and give it 30 days to respond. Without this step the regulator may reject the complaint. Details and a template letter to the company are in the Methodology.
Ready-to-send complaint letter

Where to file: Data Protection Commission (DPC) — dataprotection.ie

To: Data Protection Commission (DPC)
From: [Your name], [contact email]

1. Subject of the complaint
I am filing a complaint regarding the processing of my personal data by the website enterprise.gov.ie.

2. Circumstances
I visited the website enterprise.gov.ie and found indications that the processing of my personal data does not comply with the GDPR. The technical analysis published on gdpru.eu on 31 May 2026 (open methodology, reproducible measurements) documents the following indications:

1) Google Tag Manager (UA-65332340-1) loads at +213 ms without consent. Google Analytics (analytics.js) fires at +360 ms without consent. Matomo Cloud (matomo.js) loads at +236 ms and sends a tracking request (matomo.php) at +362 ms — before any user interaction with the banner. Google Fonts (fonts.googleapis.com) loads at +212 ms, transmitting the user's IP address to Google's servers in the USA.

2) The policy declares 'Analytical,' 'Functional,' 'YouTube,' and 'Communications' categories as requiring consent via toggles. However, Google Analytics and Matomo Cloud activate immediately upon page load — before any interaction with the consent banner. The opt-in mechanism does not function for the analytics tools.

3) The policy mentions Matomo Analytics. Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, ajax.googleapis.com, code.jquery.com, fonts.googleapis.com, and fonts.gstatic.com are not disclosed by name as data recipients in the policy. UA-65332340-1 is a Universal Analytics ID — a deprecated GA protocol, discontinued by Google in July 2023; its presence in the HAR indicates an outdated GTM configuration.

Full technical documentation is published at: https://gdpru.eu/en/audits/ie-enterprise-gov-ie/

3. Provisions violated
GDPR Art. 6(1), Art. 5(1)(a); GDPR Art. 7; ePrivacy Regulations (SI 336/2011); GDPR Art. 13(1)(e)

4. Request
I request that you investigate the violations described and apply the measures provided for in Article 58(2) GDPR.

5. Attachments
The full evidence base — the HAR file, its SHA-256 checksum and the quotation from the site's privacy policy documenting the stated contradiction — is published and verifiable at the link in point 2 above.

[Date]                                    [Signature / name]