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Countly: Understanding IP processing for geolocation

Prerequisites

Access to the Countly configuration and a decision as to whether location data is actually required for the evaluation.

Countly determines the IP address for the SDK request and uses it for local geolocation; According to the documentation, the derived location data is stored, not the raw IP. If you don't need location data, you should check the corresponding functions and additional server logs.

Check

After the change, check browser memory, network connections and web server, proxy and application logs separately. A product setting does not automatically prove that no visitor IP is stored at all levels.

Basics of visitor recognition

For classification purposes, Cookieless is not automatically tracking-free and Use unique visitors without recognition . What is important is not just the presence of cookies, but also whether requests are merged via sessions, hashes, local storage or other features.

Dismantling

If location data is needed again, specifically reactivate IP-based geolocation and re-examine the processing and storage of the underlying IP data.

Related guides

• Plausible: Understanding IP processing and daily visitor recognition
• WordPress: Statify as a simple, data-efficient page view counter
• Fathom Analytics: cookieless, but with short-term IP processing
• Pirsch: cookieless with daily visitor ID from IP and user agent

Sources and verification

This guide is based on multiple current sources. Vendor documentation is not treated as proof that every concrete installation automatically follows the same privacy characteristics.

• Documentation 1
• Documentation 2

Important: IP processing is not IP storage

An IP address has to be processed to establish and deliver a network connection. Hosting providers, firewalls or DDoS protection may also process or retain it for a limited time for security purposes. No Logging distinguishes this security layer from unnecessary persistent visitor logging by the website, application and ordinary access logs.