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Country Determination Without Using IP Addresses

Timezone-Based Geo Estimation​

SealMetrics determines the country of origin for each event ("hit") using the timezone configured in the user's browser. This method provides an approximate geographic estimation without processing IP addresses or collecting personal identifiers.

1. Retrieving the Timezone​

The browser exposes the timezone value through standard APIs such as:

Intl.DateTimeFormat().resolvedOptions().timeZone

Examples of possible values include:\

  • Europe/Madrid\
  • America/Santiago\
  • Asia/Tokyo

This information is provided directly by the user's device and does not contain identifiable data, nor does it allow individual tracking.

2. Mapping Timezone to Country​

Each timezone is matched against an internal table connecting IANA timezones to the countries that use them.

  • For unique timezones (e.g., Asia/Tokyo), the country is determined with high confidence.\
  • For shared timezones (e.g., Europe/Paris), the system selects the most likely country based on majority usage or internal statistical criteria.

The resulting estimation is accurate enough for aggregated analytics and attribution metrics, although it cannot guarantee absolute precision in every case.

3. Privacy & Compliance​

This approach fully adheres to privacy and data-minimization principles:

  • No IP addresses are processed at any point.\
  • No unique device identifiers are stored.\
  • Timezone information does not identify the user.\
  • Country calculation relies solely on non-personal technical data provided by the browser.

Thanks to this method, SealMetrics can offer meaningful geographic insights while preserving user privacy and operating without requiring consent for tracking.