Disabling first-party cookies will impact how users are identified and tracked which will impact the data available in Contentsquare. Please read this article to decide if cookieless is right for your privacy needs. For more information or to activate, please contact your Customer Success Manager.
What is Cookieless Experience Analytics?
Cookieless Experience Analytics is a privacy option of Contentsquare to disable the tracking of users via first-party cookies. Traditionally, Contentsquare relies on first-party (never third-party) cookies to identify the users on your site and to track them when they return to your site or across sub-domains. The Cookieless option enables you to still capture and visualize Contentsquare data without the need for first-party cookies.
How does a Cookieless Contentsquare work?
The Cookieless option utilizes sessionStorage instead of first-party cookies. Unlike cookies, all data saved in sessionStorage is cleared when the page session ends.
Why sessionStorage?
We have chosen sessionStorage for storing the user’s activity data, for the following reasons:
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The data is stored only for a session until the browser/tab is closed.
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The data can only be read on the client-side.
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The data saved is never sent within HTTP requests.
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Browsers increase in privacy will not impact sessionStorage because it is session-centric (not user-centric).
Limitations of Cookieless
Relying on sessionStorage instead of first-party cookies allows for the same amount of data to be captured, however, it is interpreted differently since users can no longer be tracked over multiple sessions. As a result, there are few limitations that surface within Contentsquare when switching the Cookieless:
No distinction between new and returning users
Every new session will look like a new session.
Impact: Increase in 'New users', zero 'Returning users'.
Every new tab and every sub-domain or cross-domain change create a new session
All metrics related to sessions must be interpreted with this in mind. Cross-domain is no longer possible.
Impact:
- The number of sessions increases.
- The conversion rate is lower
- Sessions times are shorter
- There are fewer page views per session
- Of course, the cross-domain is no longer possible.
Some 3rd party integrations are not supported
For now, integrations with Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, Qualtrics, Opinion Lab, iPerception, Stackla, MartizCX and ComScore are not supported without cookies.
Should I switch to Cookieless?
Cookieless Experience Analytics is first of it's kind in the industry but has some obvious drawbacks. If privacy is a top concern for your customers, you should weigh the benefits vs. the limitations. Switching to Cookieless will be easier if:
- All pages of your website are on the same exact domain
No cross-domains and no subdomains will reduce the number of generated sessions from a single user browsing session. - Most visitors don’t open new tabs
If your website has few products - Historic KPI isn't important
As the increase of the sessions count will impact most metrics and make comparison to historic values obsolete.
FAQ
Is a cookie banner still needed if I enable Cookieless?
This depends on many factors and should be decided by your legal team. While Contentsquare will no longer rely on first-party cookies, aspects of user tracking may still require a consent banner.