Cookieless Tracking 

What is cookieless tracking?

Cookieless tracking is a subtype of analytics software. It helps developers and app publishers understand how people use their app without relying on cookies or similar technologies that identify individual users.

In app analytics, cookieless tracking means collecting information about events and usage patterns without building profiles tied to a specific person.

For example, you might want to know how many users complete your onboarding sequence, which features of an app are most popular, where users drop out of a funnel, or how retention develops over time. None of these questions inherently require you to know who a user is.

Privacy-first app analytics can collect the events needed to answer these questions while avoiding persistent identifiers and personal data. Instead of following individuals across different platforms, the focus is on aggregated usage behavior and product trends.

The result is useful product analytics without cookies, cross-app tracking, or invasive user profiles. Depending on your implementation and applicable regulations, you can track app usage even without the consent banner typically used in conventional tracking methods.

Why cookieless analytics means no cookie banner

For app analytics, the important question isn’t simply whether you use cookies. Apps typically don’t use browser cookies in the first place. The real question is whether your analytics a) accesses or stores information on a user’s device and whether it b) processes personal data.

Under the EU’s ePrivacy rules, storing or accessing information on a user’s device generally requires consent unless an exemption applies. This can include tracking technologies such as advertising identifiers, device IDs, or other persistent identifiers. Not just cookies. If consent is required, apps typically need a consent dialog before the analytics service is allowed to start with the tracking.

The GDPR adds another layer: if your analytics processes personal data, you need a valid legal basis (user consent) and must also meet the GDPR’s other requirements.

Simply replacing cookies with another identifier does not make analytics privacy-friendly or consent-free.

TelemetryDeck takes a different approach. Our analytics SDK is designed so that app developers can understand product usage without collecting personal data or using persistent identifiers to track individuals across platforms.

Because TelemetryDeck does not rely on cookies or comparable tracking technologies that require consent, you can use app analytics without an analytics consent banner.

That means that you’ll get useful insights without asking users to accept tracking first.

How TelemetryDeck tracks without cookies

TelemetryDeck is designed to provide useful analytics without cookies and without following people across different apps and websites.

When a user has two different apps on their device that both use TelemetryDeck, they would still be considered as two different users within TelemetryDeck’s database.

Instead of replacing cookies with another persistent tracking technology, we use privacy-preserving mechanisms that differ between apps and websites.

TelemetryDeck in apps: an anonymized on-device identifier

When TelemetryDeck runs inside an app, the SDK stores an anonymized user identifier on the device. This allows TelemetryDeck to distinguish usage without knowing who the person behind that data is. The identifier is not connected to personally identifiable information such as name, email address, or advertising profile.

This approach gives app publishers the information they need for meaningful product analytics and data-based product optimization. You can measure active/inactive users, understand retention, analyze funnels, and see how people interact with features. All without creating identifiable user profiles or tracking people across different apps.

TelemetryDeck on the web: a temporary hashed identifier

TelemetryDeck’s web analytics works differently. Instead of storing an identifier in a cookie, TelemetryDeck generates a hashed identifier from a combination of three pieces of information: the date, the URL being visited, and parts of the IP address.

Because the website and date are part of this calculation, the resulting identifier is deliberately limited in scope. It isn't designed to become a persistent identity that follows someone around the web.

Both mechanisms follow the same principle: collect enough information to understand how your product is being used, but not enough to identify or follow the people using it.

That's how TelemetryDeck delivers useful analytics without turning analytics into surveillance.

Understand how TelemetryDeck performs compared to other cookieless web analytics such as Plausible and Matomo.

Cookieless tracking vs. cookie-based analytics

Traditional cookie-based analytics stores an identifier on a user’s device. This identifier can recognize the same browser across multiple visits and, depending on the analytics setup, connect behavior over longer periods or even across websites.

☝️ In the European Union, cookies (and similar technologies) trigger consent requirements under the ePrivacy rule and the GDPR.

Cookieless tracking takes a different approach. But cookieless does not automatically mean privacy-friendly. An analytics service can avoid using cookies and simply replace them with another persistent identifier (such as a device ID or fingerprint). From a privacy perspective, the result may be very similar.

This distinction is particularly important for app analytics. Native apps generally don’t rely on browser cookies anyway. What matters is whether the analytics system can identify or track individual users (or, respectively, their devices).

TelemetryDeck is designed to avoid this problem. Instead of replacing cookies with another method for identifying individual people, we use privacy-preserving identifiers that provide useful product insights without collecting personally identifiable information (PII).

A key benefit of tracking without cookies is that, as an app publisher (in most regions of the world), you don’t have to ask your users for consent to data collection. This gives you a complete view of user activity. In fact, many users refuse to consent to tracking. This trend is further exacerbated by the fact that opting out is made particularly easy on iOS. We estimate that approximately 70% of iPhone users decline tracking in the consent dialog.

For TelemetryDeck, cookieless analytics isn’t about finding a new way to track the same people. It’s about getting the insights you need without tracking them in the first place.

Is cookieless tracking GDPR compliant?

Cookieless tracking can be GDPR compliant, but simply removing cookies does not automatically result in compliance. The GDPR applies whenever personal data is processed, regardless of whether that data is collected through a cookie, device identifier, fingerprint, or another technology.

That distinction is especially important for app analytics. Native apps rarely use traditional browser cookies, but analytics tools may still collect identifiers, IP addresses, or other information that can relate activity to an individual user. Calling such a system cookieless doesn’t automatically make it privacy-friendly.

TelemetryDeck takes a different approach: our analytics service is designed to avoid collecting personal data in the first place. We anonymize usage data and don’t create profiles that can identify individual people.

This makes GDPR compliance significantly simpler. You can understand how people use your app, analyze funnels and retention, and improve your product without collecting personal data just to get analytics.

Cookieless is a technology choice. Privacy by design is the principle that makes the difference.

FAQ

Do I need a cookie banner with TelemetryDeck?

No. You don’t need to show a cookie or consent banner for TelemetryDeck. TelemetryDeck does not use cookies or other tracking technologies that require consent, and its analytics are designed not to collect personal data. For apps, user identifiers are anonymized and cannot be traced back to an individual. This means you can start collecting useful app analytics without asking users to accept tracking first.

Is cookieless tracking accurate?

Yes. Cookieless tracking can provide accurate product analytics without identifying individual users. With TelemetryDeck, app events are recorded normally, while a consistent anonymized identifier lets you count unique users and analyze metrics such as retention, funnels, and feature usage.

The identifier is double-hashed so it cannot be traced back to the original user. Privacy protection therefore doesn’t require giving up the product insights you need.

Does cookieless tracking work on iOS and Android?

Yes. TelemetryDeck provides dedicated SDKs for both iOS and Android. The Swift SDK supports iOS and other Apple platforms, while the Kotlin SDK supports Android. On all platforms, TelemetryDeck anonymizes user identifiers before they reach the server, so you can analyze app usage without cookies or personally identifiable information.

What's the difference between cookieless and anonymous analytics?

Cookieless and anonymous analytics aren’t the same thing.

• Cookieless analytics simply means that no cookies are used. Please note: A service could still identify users through device IDs, fingerprinting, IP addresses, or other identifiers.
• Anonymous analytics means that the data cannot be connected to an identifiable person.

TelemetryDeck is designed around the principle of anonymous analytics. User identifiers are anonymized right in the moment that a tracking event is generated, and the service does not collect or store personal data.

TelemetryDeck is both cookieless and anonymous.