General Settings: IP Anonymization

Exchanging information on the Internet is based on a protocol-oriented mechanism. An Internet Protocol (IP) address allows addressing and delivering the information to the right receiver. Every time a piece of information is sent, a device needs to communicate with other devices in a computer network to be able to deliver the message. Sending information in that context means every kind of activity such as surfing, exchanging emails, or downloading an application. The IP address is used to identify the device to which the message is supposed to be sent and find the best way to deliver it. But this also means that user's activities on the Internet can be tracked with the IP address as well as a user's location (obviously, to some extent). In terms of personal data privacy, tracking activities and defining the location might not be in compliance with the data protection policy introduced by the European Union or other countries around the world.

To ensure that Voluum follows the regulations and enables its users to be complaint with the privacy law, the IP Anonymization feature has been introduced. Once turned on, it changes the way of storing the information about the IP address to protect a user's privacy:

• An IP address version 4 (IPv4) will be stored and displayed in Voluum with only three octets and the fourth octet (one byte, eight bits) will be anonymized by showing 0 instead of real numbers:

  Example:

  Non-compliant format: 198.51.100.12 → Compliant format: 198.51.100.0

• An IP address version 6 (IPv6) will be stored and displayed in Voluum with only 3 groups of 16 bits each and 5 other groups (eighty bits) will be anonymized by showing 0 instead of real numbers:

  Example:

  Non-compliant full format: 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334 → Compliant full format: 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:0000:00000:0000

  Non-compliant short format: 2001:0db8:85a3:0:0:8a2e:0370:7334 → Compliant short format: 2001:0db8:85a3:0:0:0:0:0

IP Anonymization alters all IP addresses of visitors and stores IPs in a shorter (compliant) version in the Voluum database (Voluum DB). As a result, the reporting data will include only the anonymized format of IPs and there is no way of reversing them to the non-anonymized version. This mechanism is driven by the privacy law and regulations of collecting personal data.

Because of the introduced changes, some existing functionalities in the Voluum platform might work in a limited way, but some of them will be working as previously. Below, you can find a full specifications how those functionalities will work, once IP Anonymization is enabled:

• IP / UA Filtering: If you provide certain IP addresses in the tab, the filtering rule will be applied and all traffic coming from this IP address will be filtered out and excluded from reporting, so the IP / UA filtering will be working normally. To find out more about the functionality, go to the Traffic Filtering: Applying IP / UA Rule article.
• Passing information using the {ip} token : The IP address will be passed to the traffic source in a shorter (compliant) version. To learn more about the functionality, go to the Traffic Source Postback URL article.
• IP addresses displayed in reporting: All IP addresses will be presented in a shorter (compliant) version. 
• Accepting postback URLs from white-listed IPs in the affiliate network's form will not work at all, so you can assume that the functionality will function as disabled. To read more about the functionality, go to the Add an Affiliate Network to Voluum article.

To enable IP Anonymization in Voluum, perform the following steps:

1. Sign in to Voluum.
2. Go to Settings.
3. In the General settings tab scroll down to the IP anonymization section. Select the checkbox to activate the feature.

4. Click the Save button. Now, all IP addresses will be anonymized in Voluum.

   

Have more questions about IP Anonymization? You might find the answer below: