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Overview

Before visitors sign up or log in, they’re anonymous. Outlit tracks their behavior and later connects it to their profile when they identify themselves.

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The Anonymous Phase

When someone visits your website for the first time:
  1. Visitor ID generated - A UUID stored in localStorage and cookies
  2. Session begins - First-touch attribution captured (UTM, referrer)
  3. Events tracked - Pageviews, form views, button clicks
  4. Stored as AnonymousVisitor - Ready to be linked later

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What’s Captured

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Automatic Attribution

On first visit, Outlit captures:
DataSourceExample
UTM SourceURL paramsutm_source=google
UTM MediumURL paramsutm_medium=cpc
UTM CampaignURL paramsutm_campaign=spring_2024
First ReferrerHTTP headerhttps://google.com
First Landing PageURL/pricing?plan=pro
IP AddressRequestFor company enrichment

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Events Stored

All events are stored for anonymous visitors and will be linked when they identify: 
// All these are tracked for anonymous visitors
outlit.track('pricing_viewed', { plan: 'enterprise' })
outlit.track('demo_video_played', { duration: 120 })
outlit.track('feature_explored', { feature: 'integrations' })

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Form Data

Form submissions are captured with automatic sanitization: 
{
  "type": "form",
  "formId": "contact-form",
  "formFields": {
    "email": "jane@acme.com",
    "name": "Jane",
    "company": "Acme Inc"
  }
}
Sensitive fields (password, credit_card, SSN, etc.) are automatically removed from form data.

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Visitor ID Storage

The visitor ID is stored in two places for redundancy:

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localStorage

// Key: outlit_visitor_id
// Value: "a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-abcd-ef1234567890"
localStorage.getItem('outlit_visitor_id')

outlit_visitor_id=a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-abcd-ef1234567890; 
expires=<1 year>; 
path=/; 
SameSite=Lax
The cookie enables cross-subdomain tracking (e.g., www.example.com → app.example.com) and works when localStorage is blocked.

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Identity Resolution

When identify() is called, the anonymous history is linked: 
// This triggers identity resolution
outlit.identify({
  email: 'jane@acme.com',
  traits: { name: 'Jane Doe' }
})

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What Happens

  1. Find or create contact with the provided email
  2. Link the anonymous visitor to the contact
  3. Historical events are processed:
    • All previous events are added to the customer timeline
    • Original timestamps are preserved
    • The complete journey is now visible

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Timeline After Resolution

Jane Doe (jane@acme.com) - Customer Timeline
├── Mar 1, 10:00am - First visited /pricing (anonymous)
├── Mar 1, 10:05am - Viewed enterprise plan (anonymous)
├── Mar 1, 10:10am - Watched demo video (anonymous)
├── Mar 3, 2:00pm  - Returned, viewed /features (anonymous)
├── Mar 3, 2:15pm  - Submitted contact form ← IDENTIFIED
├── Mar 3, 2:20pm  - Viewed /signup
└── Mar 3, 2:25pm  - Created account

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Cross-Device Behavior

Anonymous tracking is per-browser. The same person on different devices has different visitor IDs until identified: 
Phone Browser:    visitorId: "phone-abc-123"
Laptop Browser:   visitorId: "laptop-xyz-789"

After identify(email: "jane@acme.com") on both:
→ Both histories merge into Jane's profile

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Session Management

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New Sessions

A new session starts when:
  • 30+ minutes of inactivity (configurable)
  • Browser closed and reopened
  • New day (midnight UTC)

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Session Data

Each session tracks:
  • Session start time
  • Pages viewed in session
  • Session duration
  • Conversion events

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Company Enrichment

For B2B scenarios, anonymous visitors can be enriched with company data:
  1. IP Address captured on first visit
  2. Background job looks up company by IP
  3. Company associated with AnonymousVisitor
  4. Appears in dashboard as “Company X visiting”
Company enrichment requires additional configuration. Contact us for setup.

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Handling Edge Cases

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Cleared Cookies/Storage

If a visitor clears their browser data:
  • New visitorId generated
  • Previous anonymous history orphaned
  • Can only link if they identify again
Consider using identify() immediately after login, even for returning users, to ensure continuity.

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Private/Incognito Browsing

  • New visitorId per session
  • localStorage may be cleared on close
  • Cookie may not persist
  • History captured but may not link

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Multiple People, Same Browser

If multiple people use the same browser:
  • Same visitorId used
  • Events mixed together
  • Identify separates them (by email)
Best practice: Encourage users to log in for accurate tracking.

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Accessing Anonymous Data

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Get Current Visitor ID

// Browser SDK
const visitorId = outlit.getVisitorId()

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Send to Your Backend

// Send visitor ID for server-side correlation
fetch('/api/track', {
  headers: {
    'X-Outlit-Visitor-ID': outlit.getVisitorId()
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({ action: 'viewed_pricing' })
})

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Privacy Considerations

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Data Retention

Anonymous visitor data is retained for:
  • Unidentified visitors: 90 days (configurable)
  • Identified visitors: Linked to customer, retained per your policy

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GDPR Compliance

  • Anonymous data can be deleted on request
  • Visitor ID is pseudonymous (not directly identifying)
  • IP addresses used only for company lookup
  • No cross-site tracking

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Opt-Out

Respect user preferences: 
// Check for opt-out preference
if (!hasTrackingConsent()) {
  // Don't initialize tracker
  return
}

outlit.init({ publicKey: 'pk_xxx' })

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Next Steps

Identity Resolution

How profiles are merged across identifiers

Browser Tracking

Detailed browser integration guide