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Technical audit · 2026-05-31

hse.ie

HSE — Health Service Executive of Ireland
IE

HSE — Ireland's national health service, processing medical data for 5 million citizens. 41 requests, 8 domains. GTM and Piwik Pro load 221 ms before the OneTrust banner. The policy declares anonymized analytics with no transfer outside the EEA, without naming specific tools.

Timeline of the leak

+354 ms · before the banner
cdn.cookielaw.org/otSDKStub.js — the OneTrust SDK begins loading.
+373 ms · before the banner
www.googletagmanager.com (GTM-MCBHRV) — GTM loads.
+383 ms · before the banner
hse.containers.piwik.pro — the Piwik Pro container faf9825a loads without consent.
+594 ms · banner
cdn.cookielaw.org/otBannerSdk.js — the OneTrust banner is displayed. GTM and Piwik Pro have already been running for 221 ms.
+644 ms · prior to consent
www.google.com/recaptcha/api.js — Google reCAPTCHA v2 initializes on the home page.
+706–1955 ms · prior to consent
www.gstatic.com — 5 requests for reCAPTCHA resources. fonts.gstatic.com — Roboto (2 woff2 files) loaded via reCAPTCHA.
+768 ms · prior to consent
hse.containers.piwik.pro/privacy-widgets.json — Piwik Pro loads its privacy-widgets configuration.

Declared versus actual

✓ Google — mentioned in the context of geolocation ('shared with Google') — declared
✓ Anonymized analytics — mentioned in general terms — declared
✓ Cookies Statement — referenced as a separate document — declared
+ Google Tag Manager (GTM-MCBHRV) — not mentioned — not declared
+ Piwik Pro (hse.containers.piwik.pro) — not mentioned — not declared
+ Google reCAPTCHA (www.google.com, www.gstatic.com) — not mentioned — not declared
+ Google Fonts (fonts.gstatic.com) — not mentioned — not declared

Transfer timings

+354 ms cdn.cookielaw.org

otSDKStub.js. UUID 0980e13c.

+373 ms www.googletagmanager.com

GTM-MCBHRV. USA.

+383 ms hse.containers.piwik.pro

Piwik Pro container faf9825a. Poland/EU.

+594 ms cdn.cookielaw.org

OneTrust otBannerSdk.js — the banner becomes visible.

+644 ms www.google.com

reCAPTCHA v2 render=explicit. USA.

+768 ms hse.containers.piwik.pro

Piwik Pro privacy-widgets.json.

Detected trackers

Indicators of GDPR non-compliance

Context

The HSE (Health Service Executive) is the body responsible for running Ireland’s health service, managing hospitals, primary care, mental health services, and public health. It processes medical data, mental-health data, Individual Health Identifiers (IHIs), and PPS numbers for approximately 5 million citizens. Sensitivity: high. HAR: 41 requests, 8 domains. 17 requests go to the CDN assets.hse.ie, 1 to www.hse.ie — the remaining 23 go to six external domains.

The OneTrust SDK loads alongside the page’s first resources (+354 ms). GTM-MCBHRV appears at +373 ms. Piwik Pro appears at +383 ms. The OneTrust banner finishes loading at +594 ms. 221 ms is the window during which both analytics tools initialize without the user’s consent.

Piwik Pro is a Polish company, one of the leading European analytics providers, positioned as a GDPR-compliant alternative to Google Analytics. The HSE uses its own Piwik Pro container (hse.containers.piwik.pro), meaning data is processed on infrastructure configured specifically for the HSE. Nevertheless, activation prior to consent violates the ePrivacy Regulations regardless of the provider’s GDPR positioning.

reCAPTCHA on the home page

Google reCAPTCHA v2 (render=explicit) initializes on the HSE’s home page at +644 ms. This is unusual: reCAPTCHA is typically loaded on pages containing forms, not on home pages. A possible explanation is that reCAPTCHA is connected globally via GTM or a page template and is not restricted to form-bearing pages. 8 requests to Google’s servers (www.google.com, www.gstatic.com) and the loading of the Roboto font via fonts.gstatic.com occur without consent.

The policy: correctly structured, incomplete in content

The HSE’s privacy policy is professionally structured: a dedicated DPO, data subject rights, and a retention policy. On the web-data side, the policy declares IP-address anonymization and the absence of any data transfer outside the EEA. Piwik Pro — a Polish company with EU-based infrastructure — technically aligns with the latter statement. But neither Piwik Pro, GTM, nor reCAPTCHA is named specifically. The policy describes the effect (“anonymized data”) without describing the tools. Under Art. 13(1)(e), the data subject has the right to know the specific recipients, not merely the categories of processing.

Set-Cookie — zero

None of the 41 requests sets a cookie via Set-Cookie.

Conclusion

hse.ie — a site processing health data for five million citizens — allows GTM and Piwik Pro to initialize 221 ms before the consent banner is displayed. Compared with other sites in the Irish series, the HSE’s architecture is relatively restrained: 8 domains, no advertising networks, no Facebook, no DoubleClick. The violations are procedural in nature: loading order and incomplete documentation. The fix requires a single change: load GTM and Piwik Pro only after the OneTrust banner has finished initializing, rather than in parallel with its SDK.

Evidence
Original (audit)
HAR file: ie/hse-ie-2026-05-31.har
SHA-256: 47ea7e0a3019364d02bd73c21464f21dae1ef67c2049603caa7177114bcdb05e
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 hse.ie.

2. Circumstances
I visited the website hse.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) GTM (GTM-MCBHRV) loads at +373 ms. Piwik Pro (hse.containers.piwik.pro) loads at +383 ms. The OneTrust banner (otBannerSdk.js) appears at +594 ms. The gap between the first tracker and the banner: 221 ms. Both analytics tools activate before any user interaction with the consent banner. HSE's site processes medical data, mental-health data, and patient identification data.

2) The privacy policy states: 'We collect website analytics data that is anonymised and aggregated' and 'We do not transfer any other personal data about you outside the EEA.' Piwik Pro is a Polish company, and the Piwik Pro Analytics Suite processes data on EU-based servers. GTM activates prior to consent. The policy names neither Piwik Pro, GTM, nor reCAPTCHA as specific data recipients.

3) The policy describes analytics in general categories, without identifying recipients. Google (via GTM and reCAPTCHA) and Piwik Pro are not named specifically. A Cookies Statement is referenced as a separate document, but it was not included in the archive supplied.

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

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