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Visitor IP addresses

When someone opens your web chat, their IP address arrives with the request — that is simply how the internet delivers it. By default we use it to work out the visitor's approximate location and then store the address on their profile.

Don't store visitor IP addresses changes that second part. The address is still used once, in memory, to resolve an approximate country, region, city and time zone — and is then discarded. It is not written to the visitor's profile, not cached, not sent into analytics, and not included in any report or export.

The approximate location is kept, exactly as before. That single distinction is what keeps the impact narrow: everything you use location for continues working.

Only Super admins can change this setting.

Turn it on

  1. On the Settings page, navigate to General > Sensitive data handling.
  2. Find the Don't store visitor IP addresses card.
  3. Turn the toggle on and confirm.

The setting applies to one assistant at a time. Turning it on for one leaves your others exactly as they are.

note

This setting can be turned off again at any time. Turning it off means new conversations start recording the address again; it does not restore addresses that were never stored.

What changes

What changesWhereEffect
IP address on a contactUser 360 → contact profileField is empty
Approximate network rangeUser 360 → contact profileField is empty
ip columnData Explorer → Message events, API events, Bot eventsColumn is empty
Saved and scheduled reportsReportsColumn is empty
Returning-visitor countsAnalyticsRepeat visits are counted as new visits

The last row is worth reading twice. A returning visitor was previously recognised by comparing their stored address, so with nothing stored every visit is counted as new. Returning-visitor numbers fall and new-visitor numbers rise by the same amount.

The setting applies from the moment you turn it on. Records written earlier keep the values they were written with, so reports covering earlier dates are unchanged.

What keeps working

Location on contacts and in analytics. Country, region, city and time zone continue to be resolved for every visitor and stored as they are now.

The users-by-country chart. Analytics → Overview → Usage trends keeps its country breakdown, and the corresponding analytics API keeps returning data.

Geographic columns in Data Explorer. City, region and country remain on Message events, Bot events, User engagement events and Search Bar Analytics.

Segments and campaigns on country and time zone. Those properties keep being populated, so existing segments and the campaigns behind them continue matching normally.

Inbox. Ticket views and the agent contact panel are unchanged — they show name, email and conversation history, and never displayed the address.