Data Processing
How Geo Targetly works?
Geo Targetly is integrated into a website by using a JavaScript based tracking code similar to a Google Analytics tracking code. This tracking code will execute in the visitor's browser when they visit your site. This involves the visitor's browser 'pinging' our server which will then determine the visitor's location using their IP address and then output the required redirect or content depending on the service that has been setup.
In the case of the Geo Link and Geo Image products, these work independent of a website and do not require any JavaScript tracking code to be installed into your site. Instead you are provided with a URL which the visitor's browser will access and 'ping' our server. We can then determine their location using their IP address and deliver the redirect or image respectively.
What data does our server see?
When a visitor's browser 'pings' our server, they are essentially making a http request to our server. Below is the data we see when the request is made:
- Standard http request headers (available as part of any http request)
- Browser URL (obtained via window.location parameter in the JavaScript tracking code)
- Referrer URL (obtained via document.referrer parameter in the JavaScript tracking code)
- Browser screen size (width & height) (obtained via the window inner/client width & height parameters in the Javascript tracking code)
What data do we use?
We don't use all the data obtained in the http request headers. Below is the data we use to provide our services:
- IP address (from request headers) - to determine the visitor's continent, country, state/region, city, latitude & longitude
- User Agent (from request headers) - to determine if the visitor is a bot as we exclude bots from the purchased quota
- Browser URL - to determine if the service should execute on the specific page/website as part of the setup rules
- Referrer URL - to determine if the visitor should be redirected and for passing original referring domain in UTM parameters
- Browser screen size - to determine the size of the popup to display
- Cookies stored by our service (refer below) (These cookies are checked using the JavaScript output from our service and are not sent to our server for checking)
Does this data get stored?
The data listed above is processed in real-time to determine the output of our service. It is not stored in a database for future reference. It only exists in server logs (when we are debugging) for a temporary period of time after which the logs are deleted.
We provide analytics in terms of the total aggregate number of visits from a specific rule you have created in the setup. These analytics are only aggregates of the total number of visits from a location that you have setup and do not 'profile' specific visitors.
We do not provide or store any data on the number of visits of a specific IP address or visitor.
Are any cookies used?
Depending on how you setup our service, we may set cookies into your visitor's browser. The purpose of these cookies is to determine if a visitor has 'seen' the geo personalized content, redirects, popups, notifications bars and other forms of geo personalized output from our service previously in the time frame defined by you (the cookie time can be set in hours as part of the service setup). This allows our service to determine if the visitor should be shown a personalized output again.
The cookies will have the following names, where the * can represent any characters and is usually the name of the specific cookie and a unique ID of your account or setup.
- gt*
- geotargetly*
To determine the cookie name you can open the browser's dev tools once you have visited a page where our service is running and inspect the cookies stored. Feel free to contact us for help to determine the name of the cookies if required.
How accurate / specific is the location data?
Location data obtained from IP addresses are only approximate locations and not the exact location of a visitor. The location normally points to the centre of the city, hence the latitude or longitude is not the exact address of the visitor. The expected accruacy is around 99% on a country level, 70-80% on a state/province/region level, 70-80% on a city level. IP based location does not pin point the visitor down to a zip/postal code or a specific street address.
Where do we process data?
Our servers are globally distributed to minimize latency and run on Google Cloud. Your website visitors will ping servers that are available closest to their location. If a server is not available, the visitor will ping the next closest server. We currently have servers located in the United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Australia, Singapore, India and Canada. We are currently rolling out new servers in other locations such as Germany and Japan within the Google Cloud platform.
For any questions, please contact us at:
Email: contact@geotargetly.com
Last updated: 28 Feb, 2023
