Cookieless Tracking

import { Aside } from ‘@astrojs/starlight/components’;

analyze.swiss supports fully cookieless tracking, allowing you to collect analytics data without storing any identifiers on the user’s device.

Why Cookieless?

• GDPR Compliance: No cookie consent banner required in most cases
• Privacy-First: Respects user privacy by default
• Ad Blocker Resistant: Works even when cookies are blocked
• Trust Building: Shows users you respect their privacy

How It Works

In cookieless mode, analyze.swiss uses a combination of:

1. Session Hashing: A hash based on the user’s IP, User-Agent, and the current date
2. Fingerprint-Free: No browser fingerprinting techniques
3. Daily Reset: Session resets each day for privacy

User Session = Hash(IP + UserAgent + Date + Salt)

Cookieless mode trades some accuracy for privacy. You may see slightly higher unique visitor counts as returning users within the same day are counted as the same session, but across days they appear as new visitors.

Enabling Cookieless Mode

Via Script Attribute

<script
  src="https://analyze-ingest.thismatters.workers.dev/s/a.js"
  data-api-key="YOUR_API_KEY"
  data-cookieless="true"
  defer>
</script>

Via SDK Configuration

import { Analyze } from '@analyze.swiss/sdk';

const analyze = new Analyze({
  apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY',
  cookieless: true
});

Via Workspace Settings

1. Go to Settings → Privacy
2. Enable Cookieless Tracking Mode
3. Save changes

This applies to all tracking for your workspace.

Comparison: Cookies vs Cookieless

Feature	With Cookies	Cookieless
Unique Visitors	Accurate	Slightly overcounted
Session Tracking	Multi-day	Daily reset
Returning Visitors	✅ Tracked	❌ Not tracked
Cross-Device	✅ With identify()	✅ With identify()
Cookie Banner	Usually required	Usually not required
GDPR Compliant	✅ With consent	✅ By default

Best Practices

1. Use identify() for Logged-In Users

Even in cookieless mode, you can track returning users by calling identify() after login:

// User logs in
analyze.identify('user_123', {
  email: 'user@example.com'
});

// Now this user is tracked accurately across sessions

2. Combine with First-Party Domain

For best results, combine cookieless mode with a first-party tracking domain:

<script
  src="https://t.yourdomain.com/a.js"
  data-api-key="YOUR_API_KEY"
  data-cookieless="true"
  defer>
</script>

3. Consider Your Use Case

Use Case	Recommendation
Marketing site	Cookieless ✅
SaaS app with login	Cookies + identify()
E-commerce	Cookies + identify() on checkout
Blog/Content	Cookieless ✅

Legal Considerations

This is not legal advice. Consult with a legal professional for your specific situation.

In many jurisdictions, cookieless analytics that don’t collect personal data may not require explicit consent. However:

• GDPR (EU): Cookie consent may not be required for strictly necessary analytics
• CCPA (California): Does not apply to anonymous data
• ePrivacy Directive: May still require disclosure in privacy policy

We recommend:

1. Mentioning analytics in your privacy policy
2. Consulting with a privacy professional
3. Providing an opt-out mechanism regardless

IP Anonymization

Even in cookieless mode, we anonymize IP addresses:

Original: 192.168.1.123
Stored:   192.168.1.0 (last octet zeroed)

This provides geographic data while protecting user identity.

Next Steps

• Pixel White-labeling – Use your own domain
• Privacy Settings – Additional privacy controls
• Identity Resolution – Track logged-in users