6 posts tagged with "Privacy"

Introduction​

The biggest threat to your analytics isn't cookie rejection—it's cookie banner ghosting.

While marketers obsess over rejection rates (users clicking "Reject All"), the silent killer of analytics data is the 40-60% of visitors who simply ignore cookie consent banners entirely. They don't accept. They don't reject. They just... ignore it.

This phenomenon, called "banner ghosting" or "decision avoidance," represents basic human psychology: when faced with an unwanted decision, people procrastinate or avoid it entirely. Cookie consent banners trigger this avoidance behavior at scale.

The European Union issued over €20 million in fines for analytics violations in 2023, yet most companies still don't understand what makes their analytics GDPR compliant. Many businesses either accept massive data loss from cookie consent requirements or operate in a gray area of regulatory uncertainty.

This comprehensive framework explains exactly what GDPR compliance requires for web analytics, which legal bases work, and how to implement compliant tracking without losing visitor data.

Key Takeaways:

• GDPR offers two legal bases for analytics: consent (loses 60-87% data) and legitimate interest (captures 100%)
• Most analytics tools fail GDPR because they store IP addresses or require cookies
• Sealmetrics achieves full compliance through consentless tracking with zero IP storage
• Country-specific regulations (TTDSG, CNIL) have additional requirements beyond baseline GDPR

Cookie rejection rates have reached 60-87% across the EU, making traditional cookie-based analytics increasingly unreliable. This technical comparison explores how cookieless analytics fundamentally differs from cookie-based approaches and why businesses are migrating to consent-free tracking solutions.

Key Takeaways:

• Cookie-based analytics loses 60-87% of EU visitor data due to consent rejections
• Cookieless analytics captures 100% of traffic without requiring consent banners
• Sealmetrics uses session-based tracking without cookies or IP storage
• GDPR compliance differs: consent requirement vs legitimate interest basis

Marketers love real-time dashboards. Seeing how many people are on your site “right now” is exciting. But in Europe, the law is strict: not all “real-time tracking” is legal without consent.

Access to Real Time Tracking Consent Guide

In this article, we break down what the CNIL (France) and the AEPD (Spain) actually say, why reports like “last 30 minutes” may put you at legal risk, and how Sealmetrics solves this by design.

Last Updated: November 13, 2025

Introduction​

Cookieless analytics has emerged as the solution to this data loss crisis. Unlike traditional cookie-based platforms like Google Analytics, cookieless analytics captures 100% of visitor data without requiring consent banners, cookies, or personal identifiers like IP addresses.

This complete guide explains how cookieless analytics works, why it's GDPR compliant without consent, and how platforms like Sealmetrics provide businesses with accurate, complete data while respecting user privacy.

Key Takeaways​

• Cookieless analytics captures 100% of visitor data without cookie consent banners
• GDPR Article 6(1)(f) legitimate interest provides the legal basis for cookieless tracking
• Session-based tracking replaces cookies with temporary identifiers that reset after each visit
• Sealmetrics provides true cookieless analytics without storing IP addresses (unlike competitors)

Understanding long-term user behavior is crucial for business growth, but traditional analytics platforms face a critical limitation: GDPR requires deleting data after consent expires, typically forcing 6-13 month retention limits. Sealmetrics solves this with cookieless tracking that enables 25-month data retention without requiring user consent.

Key Takeaways​

• 25-month retention without consent: Sealmetrics stores analytics data for over 2 years under GDPR Article 6(1)(f) legitimate interest
• No consent expiration risk: Unlike cookie-based analytics, your data won't be deleted when consent expires
• Complete historical analysis: Track seasonal trends, year-over-year growth, and long-term user behavior
• GDPR compliant by design: Cookieless tracking with zero IP storage meets data minimization requirements