GDPR-compliant web analytics
Lienks shows you where your visitors come from and what they do on your website. No cookie banner, no stored IP addresses and servers in Germany. This makes it easy to use your visitor stats in a GDPR-compliant way.
What belongs to GDPR-compliant web analytics?
Web analytics is about two sets of rules. The TDDDG (the German telecommunications and digital services data protection act) regulates whether anything is stored on or read from your visitors' devices. The GDPR regulates how personal data is processed, for example the IP address.
For visitor stats, this usually means:
- No consent for cookies: If the tool uses cookies or localStorage, you need consent, which means a cookie banner. Without access to the device, this does not apply.
- A legal basis: Every browser sends its IP address when a page is requested. For that you need a legal basis, for example a legitimate interest.
- Data in the EU: If data goes to countries outside the EU, for example the USA, it gets a lot more complicated.
- A data processing agreement (DPA): If an external provider processes the data for you, you need a DPA with them.
- A note in your privacy policy: which tool you use and which data it processes.
I explain this in more detail in my article Do I need a cookie banner for web analytics?. I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
What Lienks does about it
No cookie banner needed
In its default mode, Lienks stores nothing on your visitors' devices, no cookies and no localStorage. So for Lienks itself, you usually do not need a banner. I explain how this works on the Cookieless Web Analytics page.
No IP addresses in the analytics data
Lienks only uses the IP address briefly to create a visitor ID that changes every day. It is not stored. If you turn on countries, only the country code is kept, for example "DE".
Servers in Germany
All analytics data is stored on Hetzner servers in Germany. It is not transferred to the USA.
Support from the person who builds it
Lienks is developed in Germany. If you have questions, you write directly to me.
What you still have to do yourself
Lienks takes a lot off your plate, but not everything. A few things are up to you as the website owner:
- Decide on a legal basis: For processing the IP address you need a legal basis. On lienks.com I rely on legitimate interest, which is understanding and improving the use of my website. That is my decision for my website, not a recommendation for yours.
- Update your privacy policy: Name Lienks, which data is processed and where it is stored. You can find the details for this in the next section.
- Cookie mode only with consent: If you choose cookie mode for a website, you need consent for it. In minimal and cookieless mode you do not.
And keep the other services on your website in mind: embedded videos, maps or ad pixels can still require a banner.
Which data Lienks processes
What Lienks processes:
- time and page that was viewed
- source, so which website someone came from
- browser, operating system and device type
- country, if you turn it on
- custom events that you define, for example "newsletter signup"
- a visitor ID that changes every day
What Lienks does not store:
- IP addresses
- permanent identifiers that could recognize visitors across several days
- user profiles or data about age, gender or interests
I do not use the data for advertising and I do not sell it. Lienks is not connected to any ad network.
Installation
Add this script to the <head> of your website. Nothing more is needed. Every new website starts in cookieless mode.
<script defer src="https://app.lienks.com/a.js" data-site="YOUR-SITE-ID"></script>FAQ
Lienks is built so that you can use it in a GDPR-compliant way as easily as possible: no cookies in the default mode, no IP addresses in the analytics data and all data stored in Germany. But the IP address is still processed briefly when a page is requested. So you need a legal basis, for example a legitimate interest, and a note in your privacy policy. Whether that is enough for your website is something you should have checked if in doubt. This is not legal advice.
For Lienks itself, usually not. In minimal and cookieless mode, Lienks stores nothing on your visitors' devices. In cookie mode, you do need consent. And other services on your website, for example embedded videos, maps or ad pixels, can still require a banner. This is not legal advice. You can read more in my article Do I need a cookie banner for web analytics?
On Hetzner servers in the Falkenstein data center in Germany. The backups are also stored in Germany.
Not your visitors' analytics data. It is only processed in Germany.
No. The IP address is only used briefly to create the daily visitor ID. It does not end up in the analytics data. If you turn on countries, only the country code is kept.
For as long as your website exists in Lienks. You can delete a website and its data at any time. The data is then removed immediately, and from the backups after 30 days at the latest.
That you use Lienks, which data is processed, on which legal basis, and that the data is stored in Germany. You can find the details for this further up on this page. I cannot give you a ready-made wording for your website, because it depends on your website.
Not quite. Cookieless means that nothing is stored on your visitors' devices. Anonymous means that data can no longer be linked to a person. Lienks does not store IP addresses or permanent identifiers. However, the daily visitor ID is a pseudonymous identifier and not anonymization in the legal sense.
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