Visitor location and privacy
Where a visitor's country, region and city come from, how accurate they are, what is kept and for how long, and how to forget a visitor.
Where the location comes from
A visitor's country (with its flag), region and city come from their internet address. We look it up in a location database kept on our own servers - nothing is sent to another company. The database is updated every month.
IP geolocation by DB-IP (licensed under CC BY 4.0). Country flags on Windows are drawn with Twemoji (CC BY 4.0).
How accurate it is:
- Country: almost always right
- Region / state: usually right
- City: the nearest city, not the street; mobile networks may show a nearby city
- A visitor using a VPN shows the VPN's place
We never ask the browser for an exact location.
Their local time and language come from their browser, and the device from its name.
What is kept, and for how long
| What | How long |
|---|---|
| Chats, their messages and files | Until you delete them, or Delete ended chats after (Settings > Privacy & data) |
| The visitor's internet address | Only to stop spam, then forgotten after Forget visitors' internet addresses after (30 days at first) |
| Pages a visitor saw | 90 days |
| Visitors who never chatted and gave no email | 90 days |
The internet address is never shown to your team, in exports, the API, webhooks or Integrations alerts. Private notes are never shown to the visitor.
Asking before tracking pages
Each widget chooses whether pages are tracked for everyone, only after the visitor agrees (your cookie banner), or never. See Visitors and proactive messages. You can show your own line about it under Settings > Privacy & data.
Forgetting a visitor
- Open the visitor (from Visitors or a chat) and click Erase (Admins): their chats, messages, files and pages go for good.
- Ellibo's Personal data screen finds a person by email or phone in every Ellibo app, Live Chat included, to export or erase what you hold about them.