At SealMetrics, we take user privacy and compliance very seriously. One key area where this is evident is managing and blocking bot traffic without touching IP addresses. Here, we explain how this process works and why we choose this approach.

At SealMetrics, we do not handle or manipulate IP addresses in any way, not even for filtering purposes. Why is that? While using IPs to filter traffic might seem familiar and effective, this would require user consent in our interpretation of privacy regulations like GDPR and others. Even if IPs are only used for filtering data and not stored, processing them could be considered handling personal data.

Our commitment to privacy and transparency means we avoid any practice that could involve the use or storage of personal information, such as IP addresses.

Instead of relying on IPs, SealMetrics blocks bot traffic through user agent identification. A user agent is a text string that identifies the browser and operating system a visitor is using. Bots, such as search engine crawlers or malicious bots, often have specific user agents identifying them as non-human traffic.

We maintain an updated list of known bot user agents to filter out automated traffic. When a visitor accesses a website, our system checks the user agent of the request. If it matches any user agent on our bot list, we block or ignore that traffic automatically without processing IPs or any sensitive information.

This approach allows us to ensure user privacy while keeping reports clean and accurate, free from automated traffic that could skew metrics.