Overview
The Privacy-First Tracking Engine is the core of Page Visit Counter Analytics. It tracks visitor behavior anonymously without cookies, without storing personally identifiable information, and without relying on any third-party services. Fully GDPR and CCPA compliant out of the box.
Feature Details
| Category | Privacy & Compliance |
| Type | Tracking Engine |
| Plan | Free |
| Configurable Settings | Yes |
Prerequisites
- Page Visit Counter Analytics plugin must be installed and activated.
How to Configure
- Go to your WordPress admin dashboard.
- Navigate to Analytics > Settings from the left sidebar menu.
- Enable or disable tracking globally.
- Configure which user roles to exclude from tracking.
- Set IP addresses to block from tracking.
- Choose which post types to track.
How It Works
The tracking engine injects a lightweight JavaScript snippet on your frontend pages. When a visitor loads a page, the script sends an asynchronous POST request to a REST API endpoint with the page URL, referrer, and user agent — nothing more.
On the server side, the visitor’s IP address is hashed using SHA-256 with your site’s NONCE_SALT as a key, creating an anonymous identifier. This hash is used to associate pageviews with sessions but cannot be reversed to reveal the original IP address. Sessions use a 30-minute rolling window — if a visitor is inactive for 30 minutes, their session expires.
No cookies are set. No fingerprinting is performed. No data is sent to third parties. All analytics data stays on your own server.
Benefits
- No cookie consent banner needed — the plugin uses zero cookies.
- Fully GDPR and CCPA compliant without additional configuration.
- IP addresses are hashed and can never be reversed to identify visitors.
- All data stays on your server — no third-party data sharing.
- Lightweight tracking script with minimal performance impact.
- Automatic bot detection filters out non-human traffic.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this plugin GDPR compliant?
Yes. The plugin does not store any personally identifiable information. IP addresses are hashed with SHA-256, no cookies are used, and no data is sent to third parties. It is GDPR and CCPA compliant out of the box.
Do I need a cookie consent banner for this plugin?
No. Since the plugin does not use cookies or store PII, no cookie consent banner is required for this analytics solution.
Can I exclude admin users from tracking?
Yes. Go to the plugin settings and configure which user roles to exclude. You can also block specific IP addresses from being tracked.