Our Privacy-First Tracking Philosophy
At Sealmetrics, we operate under a fundamental principle: if tracking a particular KPI would violate user privacy, we won't track it—even if regulations permit it. This philosophy drives our data collection decisions and ensures that user privacy is never compromised for business intelligence.
What We DO Track: The Four-Variable System
SEAL operates on a fundamental isolated hits methodology, collecting only four essential variables per page view:
The Four Essential Data Points Per Hit
1. Timestamp
✅ When: Exact time the page view occurred
✅ Purpose: Temporal analysis and trend identification
✅ Privacy: No personal identification possible from timestamps
2. User Agent (Not Stored)
✅ Capture: Browser and device information detected
✅ Processing: Used for categorization during processing
❌ Storage: User agent strings are NOT stored for privacy protection
✅ Result: General browser/device categories for analytics
3. Current URL
✅ Page Path: The specific page being viewed
✅ Content Analysis: Understanding which content is accessed
✅ Navigation Patterns: Anonymous page popularity analysis
✅ Site Structure: How different pages perform
4. Referral URL
✅ Traffic Source: Where the visitor came from
✅ Campaign Attribution: Marketing channel identification
✅ Search Analysis: Anonymous search traffic patterns
✅ Social Media: Anonymous social platform attribution
What This Isolated Approach Enables
Page Analytics:
✅ Page Views: Total number of pages viewed (aggregate count)
✅ Page URLs: Which pages are visited on your website
Traffic Analytics:
✅ Entrances Count: Total number of website entrances (anonymous)
✅ Traffic Volume: Overall website traffic trends
Engagement Behavior
Interaction Metrics. (It could be tracked with custom events):
✅ Click Events: Anonymous click patterns and hotspots
✅ Scroll Depth: How far users scroll on pages (aggregated)
✅ Form Interactions: Anonymous form completion rates
✅ Video Engagement: Anonymous video play and completion rates
✅ Download Events: File download tracking (anonymous)
Navigation Patterns:
✅ Entry Pages: Where users first land on your site
✅ Exit Pages: Where users leave your site
✅ Internal Search: Anonymous search query patterns. It could be tracked with custom events.
Campaign and Marketing Analytics
Attribution Data:
✅ Traffic Sources: Where visitors come from (search, social, direct)
✅ Campaign Performance: UTM parameter tracking for marketing campaigns
✅ Referrer Information: Which websites send traffic (anonymized)
✅ Search Keywords: Anonymous keyword performance data
✅ Social Media Traffic: Anonymous social platform attribution
Conversion Tracking:
✅ Goal Completions: Anonymous conversion event tracking
✅ E-commerce Transactions: Purchase values and product performance
✅ Lead Generation: Anonymous form submissions and inquiries
✅ Micro-Conversions: Newsletter signups, downloads, etc.
✅ Revenue Attribution: Which channels drive sales (aggregated)
Technical and Device Information
Anonymous Device Data:
✅ Browser Type: General browser categories (Chrome, Firefox, Safari)
✅ Operating System: General OS information (Windows, macOS, iOS, Android)
✅ Device Category: Desktop, mobile, tablet (anonymous)
✅ Screen Resolution: General screen size categories
✅ Language Settings: Preferred language for content optimization
Geographic Information:
✅ Country-Level Location: General country identification
✅ Region/State Level: Not available for privacy reasons.
✅ City-Level Data: Not available for privacy reasons.
✅ Time Zone Information: For detecting the country of visitors.
Business Intelligence Metrics
Performance Indicators:
✅ Conversion Rates: Percentage of visitors who convert
✅ Average Order Value: E-commerce transaction averages
✅ Customer Acquisition Cost: Marketing efficiency metrics
✅ Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): Campaign profitability analysis
✅ Funnel Performance: Step-by-step conversion analysis
What We DON'T Track
Personal Identification Data
Individual Identifiers:
❌ IP Addresses: We don't store or process IP addresses
❌ User IDs: No persistent user identification across sessions or hits
❌ Email Addresses: No personal email collection for analytics
❌ Phone Numbers: No phone number tracking or storage
❌ Names: No collection of personal names or identities
❌ User Agent Strings: Browser information captured but NOT stored
Hit Correlation:
❌ Cross-Hit Linking: Hits cannot be correlated to the same user
❌ Session Reconstruction: No ability to rebuild individual user sessions
❌ User Journey Mapping: No tracking of individual user paths
❌ Behavioral Patterns: No individual user behavior analysis
❌ Return Visit Tracking: No identification of returning individuals
Biometric and Sensitive Data:
❌ Fingerprints: No digital fingerprinting for user identification
❌ Voice Patterns: No audio data collection
❌ Facial Recognition: No visual identification tracking
❌ Keystroke Patterns: No typing behavior analysis
❌ Mouse Movement: No detailed cursor tracking for identification
Behavioral Profiling
Individual User Tracking:
❌ Cross-Session User Journeys: No tracking of individuals across visits
❌ Personal Browsing History: No individual browsing pattern storage
❌ Individual Preferences: No personal preference profiling
❌ Personal Purchase History: No individual shopping behavior tracking
❌ Individual Content Consumption: No personal reading/viewing patterns
Cross-Site Tracking:
❌ Third-Party Cookies: No cross-site user identification
❌ Cross-Domain Tracking: No tracking across different websites
❌ Social Media Integration: No personal social profile linking
❌ Advertising Network Data: No ad network user identification
❌ Data Broker Information: No third-party personal data purchase
Sensitive Personal Information
Protected Categories:
❌ Health Information: No medical or health-related data
❌ Financial Details: No personal financial information
❌ Religious Beliefs: No faith or belief system tracking
❌ Political Affiliations: No political preference tracking
❌ Sexual Orientation: No personal relationship data
Demographic Profiling:
❌ Age Tracking: No personal age identification
❌ Gender Identification: No personal gender tracking
❌ Income Levels: No personal financial status tracking
❌ Education Background: No personal education data
❌ Employment Information: No workplace or job tracking
Device and Technical Identifiers
Persistent Identifiers:
❌ Device IDs: No unique device identification storage
❌ Advertising IDs: No mobile advertising identifier use
❌ MAC Addresses: No network hardware identification
❌ Serial Numbers: No device serial number collection
❌ Hardware Fingerprints: No unique hardware configuration tracking
Tracking Technologies:
❌ Cookies: No cookie-based user identification
❌ Local Storage: No browser storage for user identification
❌ Session Storage: No persistent session identification
❌ Flash Cookies: No Flash-based tracking
❌ Web Beacons: No invisible tracking pixels for identification
❌ Terminal Code: No code inserted in user's terminal or device
Communication and Content
Private Communications:
❌ Email Content: No email message content analysis
❌ Chat Messages: No private conversation tracking
❌ Private Documents: No personal document content access
❌ Social Media Posts: No personal social content tracking
❌ Search History: No individual search query storage
Personal Content:
❌ Uploaded Files: No personal file content analysis
❌ Form Data: No personal form input storage (beyond conversion events)
❌ Comments and Reviews: No personal opinion tracking
❌ Personal Photos: No image content or metadata collection
❌ Audio/Video Content: No personal media file analysis
SEAL's Compliance Framework
Regulatory Compliance Through Design
GDPR Compliance:
European Company: SEAL is based in Europe with full regulatory alignment
Dublin Infrastructure: All servers located in Dublin, Ireland
No Personal Data: Four-variable system contains no personal information
Isolated Processing: Each hit processed independently without correlation
ePrivacy Directive Compliance:
No Individual Tracking: Isolated hits system doesn't track individual users
No Terminal Code: No code inserted into user's devices
Consent-Free: Technical architecture eliminates need for user consent
Anonymous by Design: Complete anonymity through hit isolation
Additional Compliance:
CCPA Compliant: No personal information collected or processed
PECR Compliant: No tracking requiring consent under UK regulations
Future-Proof: Designed to exceed emerging privacy requirements
Before implementing any data collection, we evaluate:
Privacy Risk: Could this data point compromise user privacy?
Business Necessity: Is this data essential for business intelligence?
Regulatory Compliance: Does collection meet all privacy regulations?
Future-Proofing: Will this remain compliant as regulations evolve?
User Expectation: Would users expect this level of data collection?
Restrictive by Design
Our Commitment:
We choose more restrictive data collection when regulations allow flexibility
We prioritize user privacy over data richness in all decisions
We implement privacy by design in every feature and capability
We exceed regulatory requirements rather than just meeting them
Continuous Evaluation
Ongoing Assessment:
Regular privacy impact assessments of all data collection
Legal team validation of all tracked metrics
Third-party privacy audits of our practices
Proactive adaptation to emerging privacy best practices
Transparency in Practice
What This Means for Your Analytics
Complete Transparency: You can be confident that every metric in your Sealmetrics dashboard:
✅ Respects User Privacy: No personal data was collected
✅ Meets Legal Standards: Complies with all privacy regulations
✅ Provides Business Value: Offers actionable business intelligence
✅ Future-Proof: Will remain compliant as regulations evolve
Business Impact
No Compromise on Insights: Despite our restrictive approach to personal data, we provide:
Complete Traffic Analysis: 100% of visitor data captured
Comprehensive Attribution: Full marketing campaign analysis
Detailed Conversion Tracking: Complete sales and lead analytics
Performance Optimization: All necessary business intelligence
Comparison with Industry Standards
Traditional Analytics Platforms
What Others Track (That We Don't):
Individual user identification across sessions
Personal browsing behavior profiles
Cross-site user tracking
Personal demographic information
Detailed device fingerprinting
Privacy Trade-offs: Most analytics platforms sacrifice user privacy for data granularity. Sealmetrics proves that comprehensive business intelligence is possible without personal data collection.
Our Competitive Advantage
Privacy Leadership:
More Restrictive: We go beyond legal requirements
User-Centric: Privacy decisions favor users over data collection
Future-Ready: Designed for increasingly strict privacy landscape
Trust Building: Users can trust our genuine privacy protection
Summary: Privacy-First Analytics in Practice
Sealmetrics demonstrates that effective web analytics doesn't require personal data collection. By focusing on aggregate patterns and anonymous business intelligence, we provide all the insights businesses need while ensuring that user privacy is genuinely protected—not just legally compliant.
Our Promise: Every data point in Sealmetrics represents genuine privacy-first analytics. We don't just avoid tracking personal data—we've redesigned analytics to make personal data collection unnecessary while maintaining the depth of insights businesses need to succeed.
This approach creates a sustainable model where user privacy and business intelligence complement rather than compete with each other, representing the future of ethical web analytics.