Cannabis CTO: "Can we have access to your google?"

Apparently it is common practice for a marketing department to ask for third-party access to the Google Analytics account for the High Hopes website.#

The first time I got this request, it was asked in a clear way and the request was careful to say that they did not need full access, just read-only access.#

The second time, the request was, "Please have goofygmailaddress@gmail.com added to your google with full permissions to the account for our evaluation as this will help us put together the RFP to its fullest potential."#

Our CFO did not know what this meant, and forwarded it to me. I had to guess that "google" meant "Google Analytics."#

I wrote back with a few questions:#

"Other agencies have asked us for read-only access (not full access) in the past. Is there a reason you need more than read-only access?"#

"Can you give me a technical overview of how you use the data you gather from Google Analytics? Please include information about how long you retain the data you gather."#

"I am uneasy granting access to a gmail.com account. I would prefer to grant access to a marketingbehemoth.com account. Can you create a Google account for an email address at your domain so we can grant access to an account we know you control?"#

I don't really expect that this marketing department is intentionally going to misuse our data.#

But I am worried that maybe the technical people don't talk to the nontechnical people very much. I'm also worried that I'm being too careful and no one actually cares about protecting data.#