Privacy, GDPR, and Embedded Google Maps

Google will never tell you this, but when you embed Google Maps anywhere, it automatically collects data from you and your users. This means you are not compliant with GDPR and other privacy laws (even outside Europe) if you don’t first obtain permission from users to collect and share data with Google before displaying the map. Let me show you how this works with a real example.

Let’s assume you want to embed a map on your website using Google Maps. You go to Google Maps, select a location to share, click Share, and copy the HTML code with the iframe.
For example, you want to share the Louvre and you get the following code to insert into your website:

<iframe src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d2624.8741027886185!2d2.335063713036665!3d48.8606110712127!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x47e671d877937b0f%3A0xb975fcfa192f84d4!2sLuwr!5e0!3m2!1spl!2spl!4v1760443441496!5m2!1spl!2spl" width="600" height="450" style="border:0;" allowfullscreen="" loading="lazy" referrerpolicy="no-referrer-when-downgrade"></iframe>

We created a special test webpage using this HTML code (you can check it out at https://makememap.com/test-google-maps).
When you open this website, Google automatically collects data about your activity — as you can see in the screenshot below.

Of course, nobody asks you for permission to collect your data, which is against GDPR and other privacy laws. However, if you open maps.google.com in Incognito mode, you will see a window asking you to accept the Terms of Use and data collection policies first.

What does this mean for projects that use embedded Google Maps?

If a website, app, or any other project embeds Google Maps without asking for user consent before loading the map, it can be fined for non-compliance with GDPR or other privacy regulations.

All embedded maps based on Google Maps collect data — that’s simply how they work.
That’s why we developed our own map service, which you can use to add maps to websites, blogs, Notion pages, CMS platforms, etc., without collecting or sharing any user data and without showing any pop-ups asking for consent.

If you visit an example webpage with a MakeMeMap embedded map at https://makememap.com/examples/simple-embed-map, you won’t find any data collection or tracking lists related to your visitors.

We hope this gives you something to think about regarding privacy issues when embedding Google Maps.
Feel free to contact us with any questions at hey@makememap.com