3. GA4 <> Anything
Technical Problems
● No gtag rant (again)... but:
browser has control over session
○ starts
○ counting sessions
○ creating ID
■ must be a timestamp!
● A client ID is just not enough
● Engagement measurement
● No Consent Mode rant either! ;)
4. GA4 <> Anything
Privacy Problems
● “G” stands for “Google”
● Most people want more than just
statistics
● Running a GA4 setup without
consent is… problematic (at least)
5. GA4 Without
Cookies
How?
● GA4MP
● JENTIS (ok, there might be
cookies but you control every
value)
● “AOE” (German PHP stuff)
● Build your own endpoint
● ssGTM + walker.js FTW?
● Others?
6. GA4 Without
Cookies
What?
● Recognize session starts - very
hard if server-side!!!
● Build a Session Hash from IP
and UA?
○ Reg. changing salt?
○ Entropy?
● store session ID “somewhere”
● combine session hash with
session ID?
● “engagement” might be a
problem
● make every session_start a
first_visit by design
7. Server Side GTM
Why it is a challenge
● no consent = no gtag
● Session ID must be a timestamp
● No “session” or (easy)
persistence
○ Use Firestore for hash tables? Rly?