Cookieless Tracking: How Cookieless Tracking Works

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Cookieless tracking collects customer data and activity without storing cookies on a user’s browser or device. In the past, third-party cookies let ecommerce businesses follow customers across the web, but changes to browser privacy protections and mobile tracking have made these tools harder to use.

This shift has made reliable third-party data increasingly difficult to obtain, as consumers are taking a more active role in limiting how their information is used online. A 2026 Gartner study showed that 52% of US adults report actively taking steps to block ads, including using ad blockers or VPNs or paying for ad-free content. Globally, 29.5% of internet users use ad blockers at least some of the time, according to 2026 data from Backlinko. These trends have pushed brands to collect first-party data instead of relying on cookies.

Here’s what cookieless tracking is, how it works, and which solutions you can consider.

What is cookieless tracking?

Cookieless tracking measures website activity without relying on traditional browser cookies. Cookies are small text files a website stores through a user’s browser, on the user’s device. They store customer information for future sessions with the website that issues them, and track activity such as how customers interact with products, which pages they visit, and what they put in their cart. 

Cookieless tracking uses alternative methods of data collection, including sending records of customer actions, called events, directly from a server to an analytics platform, using browser storage, or analyzing device characteristics like screen size, operating system, and browser type to identify returning visitors.

Safari and Firefox now restrict third-party cookies by default, and the rising use of ad blockers and privacy regulations have made cookie-tracking less effective even in browsers that do allow them, such as Chrome. Together, these factors have driven a shift toward cookieless tracking. 

Apple’s App Tracking Transparency framework, for example, requires apps to obtain permission before tracking users across other companies’ apps and websites. On Shopify Masters, Manscaped Founder and CEO Paul Tran recalls the heyday of direct-to-consumer (DTC) business before the iOS 14.5 update, when it was easier to track across sites.

“This was a time when the Facebook algorithm was really just starting to take shape and be really good,” he says. “Then Apple released the iOS update, which made it much more difficult for advertisers to track you across different domains and different sites. The entire industry saw a decrease in ad efficiency after that update.”

“Cookieless” doesn’t automatically mean anonymous or exempt from privacy laws. A cookieless system can still involve personal data collection, so businesses need to consider applicable consent requirements and privacy regulations, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the EU.

Cookieless tracking methods

• Server-side tracking
• Device fingerprinting
• Data layer
• Session storage
• Local storage

There’s no universal way to conduct tracking without cookies. The right method depends on what you need to measure, your technology, and privacy obligations.

Server-side tracking

Traditionally, tracking tools have relied on code running in a shopper’s browser to record actions and send that information directly to analytics or advertising platforms. With server-side tracking, the business’s server processes and sends the tracking data instead. The shopper’s browser still sends basic event data to the business’s server, but the server decides what to forward and where. From there, it can pass relevant event information to an analytics tool such as Google Analytics or an advertising platform like Meta Ads or Google Ads.

This gives website owners more control over the data that’s collected and reduces data loss from browser restrictions and ad blockers, which typically block third-party scripts from loading. When your server sends the data instead, those blockers have nothing to intercept. When a customer completes checkout, your server can send that purchase event directly to Meta Ads for attribution, without relying on the customer’s browser to fire a Meta pixel that an ad blocker might catch. 

Some Shopify apps can use server pixels, which send information about customer actions, like completing checkout, directly from Shopify’s servers rather than relying on the shopper’s browser. 

Depending on the information processed and applicable law, businesses may still need to ask visitors for consent—through a consent banner displayed by a consent management platform—before collecting or sharing information for analytics or advertising.

Device fingerprinting

Device fingerprinting combines details about a visitor’s device and browser, such as the operating system, browser version, screen settings, and sometimes the user’s IP address, to distinguish one device or browser from another. Because fingerprinting can identify users or monitor them without conventional tracking cookies, it raises privacy concerns. 

Browsers like Safari and Firefox have active protections against fingerprinting, while Google has removed its prohibition on fingerprinting on Chrome. Replacing cookies with fingerprints doesn’t remove the need for prior consent or other data-protection measures, which a consent banner can collect when someone visits the site. 

Data layer

A data layer is a structured collection of information about events and interactions on a website. For example, it might record that a shopper viewed a product, added an item to their cart, or completed checkout. 

Instead of letting multiple marketing tools independently gather visitor data, you can use a data layer as a standardized source of information for analytics and marketing integrations. This supports better data quality and gives you greater control over what information these tools share.

For example, you might push a purchase event to your data layer once, then have Google Analytics, Klaviyo, and Meta Ads all read the same event. This prevents each tool from capturing the purchase and potentially recording it differently. 

Session storage

Session storage lets a website store user data in the browser for a single session, the information disappears when the tab or window closes. It’s useful for temporary information like progress through a multi-step form or the contents of a cart before checkout. But because session storage still holds user data (even briefly), you need to consider privacy requirements based on the type of data collected.

Local storage

Local storage also saves information through the browser, but the data can remain after the browsing session ends. Websites use it to remember settings and user preferences, like a shopper’s preferred currency or language, without a traditional cookie. Like other cookieless technologies, local storage isn’t automatically private. For businesses storing data that can identify or profile an individual, privacy and data protection requirements may still apply.

Cookieless tracking solutions

• Shopify Analytics
• Ingest Labs
• Logify
• Marketing integrations

You don’t need to build a cookieless tracking system from scratch. Shopify includes a range of customer analytics and customer-event capabilities, while apps can provide more specialized tracking.

Shopify Analytics

Shopify’s built-in analytics gives you access to reporting on store performance, customer activity, sales, and other business metrics. This first-party information means you don’t have to piece together all the data from external advertising platforms.

Shopify also provides a pixel manager for managing customer-event tracking. App and custom pixels run in isolated environments that limit what they can access, and Shopify provides controls designed to help you manage what customer data is shared with third parties.

For example, Little Words Project incorporated email capture through Shopify POS to feed customer emails into their marketing programs. The approach increased in-store email capture rates by more than 20% on average, reaching as high as 95% at some locations, while helping the brand personalize follow-up marketing.

Ingest Labs

Ingest Labs is a Shopify app focused on server-side tag management and attribution. It has a built-in data layer, and first-party identity capabilities (on its Premium plan). It also has real-time pixel monitoring and integrations with platforms including Meta, Google Ads, Google Analytics 4, TikTok, and Snapchat. 

It also includes tools for managing privacy compliance and data governance. Its App Store listing says it supports more than 80 server-side templates and has a free plan for stores within specified usage limits.

Logify

Logify records store and staff activity and details visitor insights such as live journeys, product searches, and cart activity. This makes it more useful for monitoring user interactions and operational activity than for replacing an advertising attribution platform. Its Shopify App Store listing also lists compliance with the EU’s GDPR among its analytics features.

Marketing integration

Shopify’s integrations with marketing platforms can also combine browser and server-based measurement. For example, the Enhanced level of Shopify’s Meta data-sharing setting uses Meta’s Conversions API alongside the Meta Pixel. Browser-based ad blockers don't block server-to-server purchase events, although the integration can share customer information and remains subject to privacy requirements.

Cookieless tracking and customer privacy

Operating without cookies doesn’t automatically eliminate consent banners or other privacy requirements. Whether a particular tracking technology requires explicit consent depends on the technology, the personal data involved, where your customers are located, and applicable law. 

For example, moving your Meta conversion tracking to server-side changes how the data travels, not what the data is. Since you’re still processing personal data about a user, consent requirements still apply, as they did when you had a pixel firing in their browser.

Shopify’s pixel tools include customer privacy settings that control when pixels collect information and for which purposes. In markets configured to require consent, like the European Economic Area and UK, pixels run only after visitors provide the permissions required by their configuration.