Cookieless analytics

Conventional analytics tools drop a first-party cookie containing a random visitor ID on first page load, then read it back on every subsequent visit to stitch sessions together and recognize returning users. That cookie is what makes the tool subject to consent rules in most jurisdictions: it is a persistent identifier stored on the user’s device, regardless of whether the data behind it is later called "anonymized."

cookieless tools do not keep a persistent identifier on the visitor’s device. Traffic is aggregated from what a request already carries (page URL, referrer, user agent, and a location derived from the IP) without setting cookies or building a durable per-visitor profile. The tradeoff is precision: without a stable ID, distinguishing a returning visitor from a new one becomes an estimate rather than a lookup, so cookieless tools favor aggregate trends over individual visitor timelines.

Because no cookie is set and nothing is stored on the device beyond what is strictly necessary, this category of tool typically falls outside ePrivacy consent-banner requirements in the EU and needs no cookie disclosure. Pulse Analytics sets no cookies and uses no fingerprinting. A salted session hash resets every day at the site’s midnight and ties pageviews into one visit. A visitor hash resets on the site’s identity window, a calendar month by default, so a returning reader counts once within the window, and nothing links a reader across sites or across windows.

The tracker keeps two values in session storage for the life of the tab, plus one local storage flag that is written only when a site owner opens an ignore link to exclude their own visits. Ciphera’s position is that this storage is strictly necessary and needs no consent banner, and the site operator decides, with counsel.

Read Detailed Guide: Cookieless Analytics: How It Works and What It Tracks