Exclude the internal by IP

[Amruthesh_AG]

Hi Team,

I am having requirement that I need exclude the distributers traffic based on IP address and need to segment and exclude the traffic.

Client is having more than 100 IP addresses. How can we achieve this?

Can we capture the user IP address and send it to adobe analytics then can create a segment using those 100 IP address and then can exclude? will it cause any PII complains?

[Jennifer_Dungan]

Internal IPs are usually excluded outright.. using the Exclude by IP

https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/analytics/admin/admin-tools/exclude-ip

This doesn't require segmentation, nor can you later see the internal traffic as a report...  (unlike Bot traffic which has limited data available).

Collecting the IPs as a dimension, then segmenting later could be considered a PII issue in some places... this is why Adobe has features to Obfuscate IPs or replace the last Octet with 0 (as a means of protecting that information).... IP Exclusion is run before those features (if they are turned on)... however, tracking the IP address as a dimension would counter that.

Also, what is your plan for capturing the IP address? You cannot read an IP address with JavaScript alone.. You could use Processing Rules to copy the IP Address into a dimension, but this would run after any obfuscation (if enabled) I believe.

Even if there are more than 100 IP Addressed, surely they are a range, so you can use that to your advantage in setting up the exclusions?

[Amruthesh_AG]

Hi @Jennifer_Dungan 

Yes, your are right collecting the IP as a dimension, then segmenting later could be considered a PII issue in some places.

If we use Obfuscate IP or replace the last Octet with 0 then use Processing Rules to copy the IP Address into a dimension will not create any PII issue later?

And also want to know how to validate captured IP address are not compliance with PII.

[Jennifer_Dungan]

Capturing IP Addresses really depends on where your site operates and the legal needs that you need to fulfil, even replacing the last Octet may not be enough for you... you will need to check with your own legal team on that.

That said, have you considered working with your developers to create logic based on the IP Address and just have them pass a simple "true" or "false" if the IP is considered internal? Rather than trying to collect the IP address and create logic on it later?

Classifications would of course allow you to make changes retroactively, but not collecting IP information into your dimensions would avoid a lot of potential legal issues.... 

If you really just need a way to segment your internal traffic from your external traffic (and not exclude internals outright), then maybe this would be a future-proof viable option.

[juliusonyancha]

Hi @Amruthesh_AG I'm wondering if the IP addresses are all within a specific range, could you consider using something like a wildcard indicator to pick all and exclude within that range?

From Analytics Workspace > Admin > All admin > Exclude by IP

[Jennifer_Dungan]

Exactly! We have 5 entries here with a wildcard in the last octet to handle our network.

It's too bad that we can't also use IP Range notation here... but I suppose IF @Amruthesh_AG needs that, they could create a "BOT Rule" for Internal Traffic...  

[Amruthesh_AG]

@juliusonyanchaThe requirement is to segment the traffic based on IP addresses not to exclude the traffic.

[juliusonyancha]

@Amruthesh_AG By default, the IP address sent to Adobe will be hashed and thus not available in analytics reporting. 

[Jennifer_Dungan]

Technically, the IP Addresses are all captured in Adobe (unless you turn on Obfuscation or Replace the Last Octet features), but none of this information is available to use in Segments or Workspaces... it is available in Data Warehouse Exports and Raw Data Feeds only... Obfuscation is not a default setting as far as I am aware... but if it is turned on, then yes, the IPs will all be hashed.

[Harveer_SinghGi1]

Hi @Amruthesh_AG ,

IP Address is not available as a standard dimension in Analytics thus you cannot use it for segmentation purposes.

You can explore one of these options though,

1. Track IP Address in a prop/eVar and use it for segmentation: As suggested in another community thread you could implement a custom JavaScript code on your website to capture the visitor's IP address in a propr/eVar and then use that variable for segmentation.
2. Identify user IP Address on client side and pass a flag to Adobe Analytics for segmentation: In this option you can use the custom JavaScript code like above option to identify user's IP and then compare it against the list of IPs that you want to treat as internal. If the IP matches then set a prop/eVar as "internal" otherwise set it as "external" and use this variable for segmentation purposes in AA. You can also use an event that is set ever time an IP is matched with the internal IPs list and use that for segmentation.

Option 2 in above can be useful if you don't want to track the IPs explicitly in AA to avoid any PII related concerns. 

[Jennifer_Dungan]

You cannot get a user's IP address with JavaScript without calling a third party service, this will also result in needing to wait for a response in order to run the logic to determine if it's internal or external....

It would be much more efficient to work with the developers to use server side code to read and id the IP address, run the logic check, and pass back a true or false, or "internal" vs "external" response into the data layer.

[RiteshYadav18]

@Jennifer_Dungan  adding to your  input, better to use server side code  and setup custom value in cookie later  read/store values in evar to bring in consistency across visits