Cookieless vs. full tracking
Otus supports two tracking modes. You choose one per site via the data-tracking-mode attribute on your snippet. Cookieless is the default and is what most sites should use.
Cookieless (default)
In cookieless mode Otus stores nothing in the visitor's browser — no cookies, no localStorage. Because no personal data or identifiers are persisted, you typically don't need a consent banner.
To group requests into sessions, Otus derives a session identity server-side from a daily-rotating fingerprint (a coarse signal built from the IP subnet, user agent and language) with a 30-minute sliding window. The raw IP address is used only to look up the country and is then discarded.
What you get: all core traffic, engagement, source, location, device, funnel and e-commerce reports.
What you don't get: anything that requires recognising the same person across sessions — specifically returning-visitor rate and new vs. returning breakdowns.
<script defer
id="otus-script"
data-site-id="123"
data-endpoint="https://ingest.otusanalytics.com/e"
src="https://cdn.otusanalytics.com/otus.js"></script>
Full tracking
Full tracking stores a first-party session cookie and a persistent visitor ID in localStorage. This lets Otus recognise returning visitors and unlocks the related metrics.
Because full mode stores identifiers on the device, you should make sure your privacy policy and consent setup account for it.
Adds on top of cookieless: returning-visitor rate and new vs. returning breakdowns.
<script defer
id="otus-script"
data-site-id="123"
data-endpoint="https://ingest.otusanalytics.com/e"
data-tracking-mode="full"
src="https://cdn.otusanalytics.com/otus.js"></script>
Side by side
| Cookieless (default) | Full | |
|---|---|---|
| Cookies / local storage | None | Session cookie + visitor ID |
| Consent banner typically required | No | Review with your policy |
| Sessions | Server-side fingerprint (30-min window) | First-party cookie |
| Core traffic, sources, locations, devices | ✅ | ✅ |
| Engagement, scroll depth, funnels, e-commerce | ✅ | ✅ |
| Returning-visitor rate / new vs. returning | — | ✅ |
How privacy is handled either way
Regardless of mode:
- Raw IP addresses are never stored. They're used in-memory only to derive country (via MaxMind) and then discarded.
- Otus stores aggregate, non-identifying attributes such as country (ISO-2), device type, browser and referrer.
Next step
Continue to the dashboard tour, or learn how to track custom events and goals.