Data Collection and your Customers' Privacy
Wide Angle Analytics was created to allow your business to analyse traffic in a kind and respectful manner. We take special care of your customers' data.
We are transparent about what data we collect. Here you will find a compiled list of all the data points collected and stored by the service.
Please consider using this information to create relevant disclosures for your End Users as necessary.
Cookies
By default, our tracking code will not use, nor will it transmit cookies.
In the Site settings, it is possible to enable Cookie Support. When this setting is enabled, the tracker code will create HTTP(S) only, SameSite restricted cookie valid for 24h since the last activity.
The cookie stores visitor's identifier, which improves tracking of the unique visits over a short period
Because the cookie is HTTP(S) only, your browser is instructed not to share it with other scripts that you might be using on your site.
Moreover, the SameSite policy tells the browser never to send the cookie to any third party.
These restrictions mean that the cookie is used solely for improving tracking on your website and not across third-party sites. Additionally, the tracking identifier is never shared outside of Wide Angle Analytics.
Session Identifier
The uniqueness of the page view can be determined based on the request and augmented with browser information. We use one of three ways to create a session Identifier.
Request-Based Identifier
A default setting. To satisfy the strictest privacy regulations, this approach to tracking visitors uses only information sent via the default HTTP request, enriched with the visitor's device resolution. The service will capture the visitor IP Address and browser's User-Agent, and generate an obfuscated, non-reversible identifier of the session. This identifier is additionally anonymized using random, transient values and information of the current site.
This weak session identifier is not a fingerprint in the regulatory sense. It is not durable and is session and site-specific.
Client-Based Identifier
The code running in the browser will generate the browser's unique identifier using its characteristics. This creates a good approximation of visitor uniqueness, but does not guarantee it.
Statistically speaking, in most cases, the fingerprint generation will be repeatable and consistent for the same device with each visit.
It is worth noting that we do not store generated fingerprints verbatim. We believe this would result in Wide Angle Analytics creating a long-term record of Personal Identifiable Information. Therefore, the fingerprint, when stored, undergoes non-reversible obfuscation.
This fingerprint technic leverages access to intrinsic browser details. Depending on the jurisdiction, this can constitute data requiring user consent.
This option is disabled by default.
Service-Based Identifier
The site can be configured to use a service-based Tracking ID. In this approach, the script on your website will inquire Wide Angle Analytics for a unique ID for an unknown session. The generated ID will be used to represent the activity of the current visitor.
The outcome of in-browser fingerprinting is ignored when this feature is enabled.
By default, this ID is not persisted in the visitors' browser. Therefore, when a visitor reloads a browser page, the ID will be forgotten and requested again.
Because of the limitation mentioned above, the Service-Based Identifier is effective in the following two scenarios:
- in Single Page Applications (SPA), where visitors are rarely required to refresh the browser window/tab, or
- when the Site Cookie setting is enabled, thus allowing the service Tracking ID to be stored in the browser cookie.
Data is stored by Wide Angle Analytics
With strict ePrivacy Compliance mode enabled
The following data are collected:
| Type of data | Comment | Storage term |
|---|---|---|
| Customer ID | An identifier of your customer as provided by your website during script initialization. This information is stored as-is. You are advised against using this field to store customer sensitive information. | Site/Account lifetime |
| User-Agent | Original User-Agent header is stored in temporary storage as it awaits further processing. In exceptional situations, it can remain in this store for up to 1 day. | 1 day |
| Browser name and version | Name/type of browser and its version as detected from User-Agent HTTP header. | Site/Account lifetime |
| Operating System name and version | Name/type of Operating System and its version as detected from User-Agent HTTP header. | Site/Account lifetime |
| Device type | A qualifier of the device type (desktop, mobile, tablet, etc.) used by the visitor. | Site/Account lifetime |
| URL visited | An URL that the user viewed when the event was recorded. Search parameters are removed and not sent to the service. | Site/Account lifetime |
| Selected URL Search Parameters | Parameters ref and UTM parameters are captured on the client and sent for processing and storage as is. | Site/Account lifetime |
With consent or future ePrivacy Regulation compliance disabled
To generate useful analytics, we need to persist information about your visitors.
| Type of data | Comment | Storage term |
|---|---|---|
| IP Address | After a page view event is captured, it is stored in transient storage as it awaits further processing. In exceptional situations, it can remain in this store for up to 1 day. | 1 day |
| IP Address Hash | An obfuscated, non-reversible hash of visitor's IP. | Site/Account lifetime |
| Customer ID | An identifier of your customer as provided by your website during script initialization. This information is stored as-is. You are advised against using this field to store customer sensitive information. | Site/Account lifetime |
| Tracking ID | What is assumed to be a unique visitor identifier. Valid for the time of session duration. It is non-reversible. | Site/Account lifetime |
| User-Agent | Original User-Agent header is stored in transient storage as it awaits for further processing. In exceptional situations, it can remain in this store for up to 1 day. | 1 day |
| Browser name and version | Name/type of browser and its version as detected from User-Agent HTTP header. | Site/Account lifetime |
| Operating System name and version | Name/type of Operating System and its version as detected from User-Agent HTTP header. | Site/Account lifetime |
| Device type | A qualifier of the device type (desktop, mobile, tablet, etc.) used by the visitor. | Site/Account lifetime |
| Location | Country and region of the customer as derived from the IP address. | Site/Account lifetime |
| Coordinates | A high-level approximation of visitor's location. | Site/Account lifetime |
| Screen resolution | Width and height of visitor's screen. | Site/Account lifetime |
| URL visited | An URL that the user viewed when the event was recorded. Search parameters are removed and not sent to the service. | Site/Account lifetime |
| Selected URL Search Parameters | Parameters ref and UTM parameters are captured on the client and sent for processing and storage as is. | Site/Account lifetime |
| Referrer | If present, a URL of the referring website is captured from the HTTP Referrer header. Search parameters are removed and not sent to the service. | Site/Account lifetime |
Data sharing
Input Objects GmbH, the company behind Wide Angle Analytics, never shares your visitors' data with third parties. Your visitors' data is used solely to present you with analytics about your site traffic.