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Feature launch: Cookieless tracking puts you in control

Written by
Mackenzie Hastings

Mackenzie Hastings

Customer Success Manager
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User privacy is now center stage, prompting organizations to revisit how they handle their user data. At RudderStack, we've always championed user-centric, privacy-compliant solutions, and today, we’re proud to introduce cookieless tracking as part of our JavaScript SDK.

This feature gives you control over what user information you collect and where you store it so you can adapt to fast-changing regulatory environments. It allows you to gather valuable user insights while adhering to the stringent privacy norms that today's consumers expect.

Privacy-compliant tracking

The journey towards Cookieless Tracking began with a growing awareness of the privacy implications associated with cookies. Cookies, though valuable for personalizing user experiences, collide with the rising tide of privacy regulations and expectations of a privacy-conscious user base. Our commitment to addressing this issue head-on was fueled by feedback from our customers, who voiced the need for a more privacy-compliant tracking solution.

With the launch of cookieless tracking in our JavaScript SDK, we’re giving you a way to gather user data without relying on cookies. Cookieless tracking will help strike a balance between gathering crucial user insights and upholding user privacy.

This release directly addresses the privacy concerns associated with traditional tracking methods. With cookieless tracking, you set your information storage preferences, so you can choose to store user data in the fashion that best suits your business needs.

Deliver privacy-centric user experiences

Get a demo of RudderStack today to see how you can drive insights without cookies

You control what you store and where you store it

How does our cookieless tracking feature work? It’s simple. While loading the JavaScript SDK, you can specify the user information you want to store, such as userId, anonymousId, and session information, and you can decide where to store it. Store data in browser cookies or use one of three cookieless storage methods:

  • Local storage – The SDK persists user information in local storage and uses it for subsequent events.
  • Session storage – The SDK persists user information in the browser’s session storage and uses it for subsequent events.
  • None – The SDK does not store the user information. Every event payload will have a new

    anonymousId

    , and subsequent events will not carry any user data from the previous event. To identify these truly anonymous events, The SDK sets a new flag

    trulyAnonymousTracking

    in the

    context

    object to identify these truly anonymous events.

Cookieless tracking is not just a feature. It’s a significant stride towards empowering our customers to provide privacy-centric user experiences. It echoes our ethos of delivering user-focused, privacy-compliant solutions.

—Ryan McCrary, Product Manager at RudderStack

Get started

Cookieless tracking is built into the latest version of our JavaScript SDK, and it’s now available to all of our customers. To get complete control over your cookie or browser storage settings, check out the documentation to explore the various configurations and set up the cookieless tracking feature.

September 21, 2023