Data Policy
Last Updated September 15, 2026
Databuddy collects analytics without analytics cookies. Browser storage supports visitor and session measurement; optional identification links activity to profiles supplied by the website owner.
How collection, storage, and connected services work depends on the features and privacy settings you use.
Our Tracking Script
The browser tracker sends pageviews and enabled events with the website ID, page and referrer information, and visitor and session IDs. The request also provides an IP address and browser headers for delivery, security checks, and approximate location.
Page and referrer addresses exclude query strings by default. Selected campaign and advertising-click parameters are collected separately; hash fragments can be included when hash tracking is enabled.
The tracker honors Global Privacy Control, Do Not Track, and stored opt-out settings. Whether consent is required depends on your configuration, the information you send, and applicable rules. See the consent and privacy guide.
Event Types
Depending on your configuration, the tracker can collect:
| Event Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Pageview | Automatically tracked when someone visits a page. |
| Outgoing | Tracked when someone clicks a link or button that leads to another website. |
| Custom | Custom events can be anything, for example button clicks or form submissions. |
| Heartbeat | Periodically sent to help track page durations and session continuity. |
| Error | JavaScript errors and unhandled promise rejections tracked to help identify and fix technical issues. |
| Performance | Performance measurements including FCP, LCP, INP, CLS, TTFB, and FPS. |
Security and Protection
Requests undergo validation, rate limiting, and bot checks. Security controls may temporarily process or retain request identifiers, including IP addresses. Standard analytics event records omit raw IP addresses.
What We Collect
Visitor and Session IDs
The browser generates a random visitor ID and stores it in localStorage. A session ID and session timing information are stored in sessionStorage.
By default, ingestion hashes the visitor ID with a rotating daily salt before storing analytics events. The anonymizeVisitorIds setting can disable this transformation or apply it according to the visitor’s country.
Calling identify() creates or updates a profile using the supplied profile ID and traits, and links activity to that profile. Profile IDs are not made anonymous by the visitor-ID setting.
IP Address Handling
The ingestion service uses the request IP address for security checks and an approximate country, region, and city lookup. Standard analytics event records leave the raw IP field empty.
This location is inferred from an IP address, rather than collected from the device’s GPS. It should not be treated as a visitor’s precise location.
Storage and Retention
Analytics events are stored in ClickHouse. Supporting account, website, and profile records are stored separately.
Data Organization
We store event-level analytics and supporting application data, including:
| Data Type | What's Stored |
|---|---|
| Events | Pageviews and enabled events, with visitor/session IDs, page details, technical context, attribution parameters, and any supplied profile ID or properties. |
| Sessions | Activity and measurements grouped by session. |
| Profiles | Optional profile IDs, supplied names or emails, custom traits, and links to visitor activity. |
| Performance | Collected performance measurements associated with the page and session. |
Data Retention
Most data is retained indefinitely while your account is active. We target one year for performance metrics, but automatic expiry is not guaranteed. You can request deletion if you need data removed by a specific date.
Long-term retention is part of the product so you can understand how your website and business change over years. You can delete your project or account at any time to remove your analytics data from our servers.
Background Processing: Events aren't stored immediately. Instead, they're queued for background processing, which allows us to batch operations efficiently and apply additional privacy protections before anything hits the database.
Subprocessors
Service providers process the information needed for the features they operate. The roles below describe these services; processing locations depend on the provider and configured feature. Contact privacy@databuddy.cc for the current subprocessor inventory and transfer information.
- Hetzner
- Hosting infrastructure.
- Railway
- Application and backend hosting.
- Vercel
- Website and dashboard hosting; AI Gateway routes AI requests to configured model providers.
- Bunny.net
- Delivery of tracker and other static assets.
- Resend
- Email delivery.
- Stripe
- Payment processing.
- Autumn
- Subscription management, billing entitlements, and metered usage. Billing requests include the customer ID, name, and email.
- AI model providers
- Process prompts and supporting context used by AI features. The provider depends on the configured model.
- Axiom
- Application observability and diagnostic telemetry.
Data Use
We do not sell your data to third parties or use your visitor information for our own advertising or marketing. Your data belongs to you. Our Privacy Policy and Data Processing Agreement describe our commitments.
Questions?
If you have any questions about this Data Policy or how we handle your data, please reach out:
We typically respond to inquiries within 24 hours.